


Transitions

by Nova_Raven



Series: BDSM ‘Verse [1]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Asexuality, BDSM, Blindfolds, Breathplay, Choking, Consent Violations (mentioned), Developing Relationship, F/M, Headspace, Impact Play, Kink, Kink Negotiation, Masochism, Multi, Needles, Negotiations, Platonic BDSM, Power Exchange, Rating/Tags May Change, Realistic Kink Portrayal, Sadism, Shibari, blood choking, sutures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-01-21 07:50:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 40,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21296045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nova_Raven/pseuds/Nova_Raven
Summary: "Kat had something come up, so I tracked you here," Sam admitted.  "I didn't know you were coming to a... I dunno, sex dungeon."Colby laughed at that too.  "Not a sex dungeon, just a BDSM play party," He corrected, which still didn't really clear things up for Sam."A what now?"
Relationships: Colby Brock & Brennen Taylor, Colby Brock & Sam Golbach, Sam Golbach/Katrina Stuart
Series: BDSM ‘Verse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1653610
Comments: 53
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

Sam turned his car off, staring at the house in the middle of the woods. Anxiety made his heart race in his chest, because this felt like the start to so many of their old bando videos. Except that this house wasn't abandoned. The many cars parked in front, Christmas lights strung up around the front yard, and group of people smoking out front told him that. 

He was just... in the middle of nowhere.

Where the hell had Colby brought him?

_"Brennan and I are going to a party tonight, you wanna come?" Colby's voice was oddly reserved, a touch of nervousness in his voice that Sam didn't usually associate with Colby and inviting Sam to parties. Usually it was Sam that had to be talked into going to whatever party Colby had found. Nevertheless, here they were. _

_"I've got plans with Kat tonight, dude," Sam shook his head apologetically, "Sorry." _

_"No, it's okay," The expression that fell over Colby's face confused Sam. He seemed disappointed, but his shoulders also seemed to sag in relief. "You have fun with Kat, dude. Next time!" _

_"Yeah, next time for sure!"_

And then Kat had something come up, and Sam found himself with nothing to do on a Saturday night. So because he and Colby shared their locations with each other 24/7 (it had started during the XPLR times for safety reasons and they had never found a reason to disable it) Sam had tracked Colby's location after neither he nor Brennan picked up their phones. Now, as he sat in the driveway of this house in the middle of nowhere... he wondered if he had made the wrong call. 

"Come on, it'll be fine, I'm sure I'll recognize someone," Sam murmured to himself, rallying himself and pushing the car door open.

And for a moment, Sam could convince himself it would be like any other party he had been to, out in the middle of nowhere so that noise complaints wouldn't be a concern. Until he got closer and he realized that something was different. Most of the parties he and Colby went to in LA were people their own age, maybe early thirties. Some of these people he was approaching had to be in their fifties and sixties. They were also wearing... was this some sort of fetish gear themed party? Two of the men wore leather vests and boots, the women in sexy dresses or lingerie. He also saw collars wrapped around the throats of two of the women, and one of the men.

Where the fuck had Colby brought him?

He double checked his phone, seeing Colby's location still resolutely blinking from inside the house. God, was Colby even here? Was Brennan? 

"New here?" One of the older gentlemen asked, taking a step towards Sam. Sam didn't even realize he had frozen, staring at the group and his phone. 

"Uh..." Sam stuttered, "I'm uh... I'm looking for my friends." He almost took a step back but reminded himself that that would be rude. This guy wasn't going to hurt him. 

Probably.

"My name's Jason," The man offered, stretching his hand out, a smile wrinkling his face. He didn't seem like a threat. Sam shook his hand, eyeing up the leather that decorated the man, "This is my wife, Flute." 

"Nice to meet you," The woman in the slim fitting black dress extended a hand as well. 

"Uh..." Sam swallowed, "Sam. I'm Sam." 

Sam was offered a few more hands and a few more names, but he'd already started to cast an eye at the house, looking for Colby's face in the wide window that lined the front of the house. 

"Who are you looking for?" One of the guys, one who had to be in his thirties asked. Sam was pretty sure his name was Ryan. 

"Uh... Colby? And Brennan?" 

The others looked at each other for a moment, and Sam's heart started to race because oh fuck, he was completely in the wrong place and maybe Colby had just lost his phone here and he should really be going... "Hey, isn't that Wolf's legal name?" Flute asked. She looked at Sam, "Little taller than you, dark hair, red tips?" 

"Yeah, yeah, that's him," A breath of relief rushed into Sam's lungs, "He goes by Wolf here?" 

Jason nodded, chuckling now. "Yeah, because of the tattoo on his arm." 

"Oh, okay..." Definitely Colby then. _Wolf? Really Colby?_

"And his top goes by Taylor," Ryan's wife, Rachel offered. "Darker skin, dark hair with bleached tips? Sound familiar?"

_Top?_ "Yeah, that would... that would be Brennan," Sam smiled faintly. Leave it to Brennan to pick a fake name and have it be his last name. 

"I think they're using the rig," Jason said, "I know they had asked Aja to go spot them." 

_Rig?_ _Spotting? Were Colby and Brennan doing acrobatics or something?_ "Could you take me to them?" Sam asked anxiously, just wanting to see Colby and Brennan and understand what the fuck was going on.

"Yeah, sure..." Ryan put his cigarette out. "Been meaning to watch Taylor rig anyway." He motioned with his hand for Sam to follow him. 

Sam followed the man into the house, not even prepared for what he was going to see there. 

They were almost immediately stopped at the door by a burly looking man with a mustache. Unlike many of the other people who seemed dressed up, this one wore jeans and a t-shirt and a Vietnam Vet ballcap. "Hey there stranger, the name's Dave."

"Sam," Sam offered faultily, already glancing around the room for Colby. 

"He'll be needing the tour? I don't think you've been here before," Dave squinted at him, and Sam shrank back just a little bit. Something about this guy set his nerves on edge.

"We're gonna try to find Wolf, first," Ryan said firmly, "I think he's that vanilla friend that Wolf and Taylor have been trying to get out." 

_Vanilla?_ Sam didn't really know what Ryan meant by that, until he looked around the room. 

The entryway opened into a living space, and Sam could see people sitting or standing around and chatting, some with drinks in their hands, some without. It would have been what he expected from a party. Except the ages were mixed, from eighteen to seventy, and the state of dress varied from nice dress clothes to lingerie to nothing. Sam blushed as a naked woman slid past them, averting his eyes quickly. 

Dave chuckled, startling him. "Oh yeah, he's vanilla all right." 

"What do you...?" Sam started, then shook his head. He just wanted to see Colby. "Look, can I just go see Colby... Wolf? Whatever he's going by?" 

"Sure thing, kid," Dave pat his shoulder, and Sam bristled at being called "kid". "They're in the back room, Ryan."

"Thought so," Ryan shrugged. "Come on, Sam." 

Sam followed Ryan quietly, trying to avert his gaze from the people around him. The things he saw... he was having a hard time wrapping his mind around because he didn't expect them to exist outside of... like kinky porn or something. But he definitely saw a group of people sitting around and chatting while some girl was bent over a table and spanked. He just... he shuddered. He needed to ask Colby what the fuck was going on.

"Here we go," Ryan said, and pushed open a halfway closed door. A woman in her forties with short, bleach blond hair looked up at them as they entered, but Sam barely paid her any mind. His brain was a little too busy trying to comprehend what was going on in front of him. 

That was Brennan and Colby alright, but that wasn't what gave him pause. That had more to do with the fact that Brennan was standing next to Colby, who was naked except for boxer briefs, hanging from a piece of bamboo by rope. There was some sort of elaborate harness tied around his chest that bound his hands behind his back, with more rope wrapped around his hips, and legs. His chest was hanging lower than his legs, and as Sam watched, Brennan unwrapped the line anchoring the hip rope to the bamboo. Still holding the line taut, Brennan knelt next to Colby, fisting his hand into Colby's hair to force Colby's eyes to his. Some sort of nonverbal communication passed between them, and Brennan let the line fall. 

Colby let out some kind of choked sound, some combination of a cry and a groan, before his eyes fell shut again and he panted shallowly, looking like he was struggling to breathe. It was the choked little gasps Colby made in the aftermath of the transition that really pushed Sam out of his stupor. 

_Colby was in pain. Colby couldn't breathe..._

"Colby!" And Sam was across the room before he had even really registered what he was doing or what his plan was. Just that Colby was tied up and in some sort of distress and Sam had to get him down. He started fumbling at the knots that held Colby in the air.

"Sam?" That was Colby's voice, choked and shocked, but Sam wasn't able to look at his best friend because Brennan had gripped the rope he was trying to untie and shoved Sam away. 

"Sam, what the fuck?" Brennan snapped.

"What the fuck are you doing to him?" Sam yelled, recovering his footing but a hand gripping his shoulder pulled him back. He turned quickly to see the blond woman gripping his shoulder tightly, iron in her stare. 

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?" She demanded. 

"Brennan, let me down," Colby whispered, and Sam's eyes flew to his best friend, but a solid hand on his chest joined the one on his shoulder and held him from jumping at Colby again.

"Easy!" The blond woman snapped. 

"Sam, Sam look at me," Colby was talking, and Sam met his eyes, anger and confusion and fear still tight in his chest. "Sam, I'm okay. Just let Brennan get me down and we'll talk, okay? I'm fine, I promise..."

"What the fuck do you mean you're okay?" Sam demanded, "You're tied up, and hanging from bamboo, and..."

"Sam, calm the fuck down," Brennan snapped, sparing him only a glance before he looked back at Colby. "Legs are coming down, bro," Brennan warned Colby, and Colby nodded. 

"Okay, okay..." With the way Colby was tied, it only took lowering his legs for Colby to be on the ground again. After a small noise of pain during the drop, Colby struggled to get his knees under him, but it was no small task considering that his calves were bound together. Brennan lowered the line on his chest next, and Sam watched Colby take a deep breath as soon as the pressure of the rope left his rib cage. 

"Colby... what... what the fuck..." Sam breathed, shrugging free from the woman's grip on him and falling to his knees next to Colby as Brennan hurriedly started undoing the rope around his ankles. 

"Get the TK first," Colby instructed, and it didn't mean anything to Sam but Brennan seemed to understand it, hands switching to undo the rope around Colby's chest first. 

Sam's chest felt tight, the world fuzzing in around him and he wasn't even aware that he was hyperventilating until he heard Colby's voice go, "Sam, Sam, hey, hey, breathe dude, I'm okay, you're okay, everyone's okay, god dammit, Brennan, get my wrists out, now!"

The next thing Sam felt was arms wrapped around him, and it didn't occur to him for a moment who it was before it registered that Colby was hugging him as best he could with his upper arms still bound to his torso, and Sam threw his arms around Colby, fucking terrified and confused and just so, so overwhelmed. "I'm okay, Sam, I promise," Colby was whispering in his ear. "I'm okay." 

It took a while of Sam assuring that Colby was okay, safe, here in his arms before he finally let him pull back so that Brennan could finish untying the chest harness. In the mean time, Brennan had managed to get most of the other rope off of Colby, leaving a pile of rope scattered under the bamboo. Sam looked up, and realized that he was being carefully watched by everyone in the room, Brennan, Ryan, the blond lady, and Colby. He felt his cheeks heat up under the scrutiny. "What?" 

"We're okay," Colby said, and he looked up at Ryan and the woman, both watching the three guys carefully. "Can we have a moment?"

Ryan nodded, leaving the room relatively quickly, but the blond woman quirked an eyebrow at them. "I'm okay, Aja," Colby reassured her.

"Okay, Wolf..." She said, and Sam could tell from her tone she wasn't quite convinced. "I'm going to go get you two some water, okay?" 

"And a blanket, please?" Brennan called after her as she left the room. 

"Oh yeah," Colby commented, and Sam watched the way Colby's body broke out in goosebumps. "Shit, it's cold..." 

"Alright, come here," Brennan slid in behind Colby, pulling his friend against his chest and wrapped his arms around Colby. Colby shivered again, but Sam could only watch them with shocked eyes, eyes that traced the rope marks left behind on Colby's arms, chest, and shins. "You dropping?"

"Uh... might be..." Colby whispered, pulling his arms and legs into a ball and curling up against Brennan. 

"Shit, dude, I'm sorry..."

"Not your fault..."

The woman, Aja, appeared behind Sam suddenly, passing Brennan and Colby two water bottles and a blanket. She waited until Colby sent her a thumbs up to exit the room again. 

As Brennan wrapped them both up in the fuzzy blanket Aja had brought, Sam struggled to get his mind around everything that had just happened. "So... are you two dating, or something?" Sam blurted out, not exactly sure why that was the first thing that popped into his head but it was the easiest thing for his mind to wrap around that didn't involve any of the weird kinky shit that had just shattered his perception of reality. 

Unexpectedly, Brennan and Colby both laughed. "Nah dude," Brennan answered, "Colby just lets me tie him. That's where it ends."

"Then why..." Sam's brain was struggling to keep up, "You were hurting him."

Brennan seemed to bristle at his words, but Colby cut him off. "Not in any way I didn't ask for," he said, "I told him I wanted it to be intense. He gave me intense," Colby smiled up at Brennan. "That last transition, dude, that fuckin' sucked."

"I know," Brennan said with a cocky smile. "You loved it though."

"I did," Colby agreed, before shivering again. Brennan tightened his grip around Colby. 

"So what... what the fuck..." 

"I didn't realize you'd be here," Colby admitted, "I thought you were going to be with Kat tonight. Otherwise... I would have explained this a lot differently." 

"Kat had something come up, so I tracked you here," Sam admitted. "I didn't know you were coming to a fuckin'... I dunno, sex dungeon." 

Colby laughed at that too. "Not a sex dungeon, just a BDSM play party," He corrected, which still didn't really clear things up for Sam. 

"A what now?" 

And so Colby and Brennan explained. How Brennan had been in the BDSM scene for a few months before Sam and Colby had moved to LA. He had gotten Colby in about a year and a half ago, and they had been going to scene events together since. The scene, as Sam understood it, was a bunch of people who liked to do kinky things together and often hung out hung out together to do so. Whether that be rope, hitting people with things, or other things that Sam tuned out after he heard the word 'fireplay'...

"So, what... do you guys just have kinky sex all the time?" 

Brennan and Colby looked at each other before laughing again. They weren't cuddling quite as closely anymore, and Sam was confused, so confused, because it made sense right? A bunch of kinky people hanging out together would have lot of kinky sex, right? 

"Nah, man, Colby's hot but like, me and the girlfriend are mono in the sex department," Brennan shrugged. 

Colby's eyes held a little bit more trepidation though. "Sam, you know I'm ace, right?" He asked quietly. 

Sam blinked a few times. "Ace?" He asked.

"Ace? A-sexual?" Colby said, and Sam shook his head. "I thought I told you."

There was a vague memory in his head, one that he had to focus hard to recall. "When we were filming for my channel. You said..."

_"I'm asexual."_

_"You've been saying that a lot, I feel like you might be."_

_"Third time this week you've said that," _ _Sam remembered tagging in_ _, not really taking it seriously._

_"A... sexual guy!"_ _Jake had cried, and Colby had just hidden his face in his plushie. And then they had continued on with the video as if nothing had happened. _

"Oh..." Sam said, and Colby's face dropped. 

"Sorry, I... I thought I told you," Colby murmured. 

Brennan glanced between them, a look of concern on his face. "It's platonic, Sam. We just tie. There's nothing else going on between us." 

Sam swallowed, looking away from the hurt in Colby's eyes. Because that wasn't the real issue going on right now. "I believe you," He whispered. "And Colby, I..." He looked back at Colby, stealing himself. The way Colby looked at him broke his heart, because he could tell in Colby's face that he was really afraid he had fucked up. "Thank you for telling me, man. I still... I still love you. It doesn't change anything for me." 

A massive look of relief fell over Colby's face. He smiled at Sam then, just a little bit. "Thanks man. Love you too." Sam scooted in, close enough that he could wrap a comforting arm around Colby. Colby leaned into him, letting Sam hold him as he continued. "I honestly thought you knew." 

Sam felt awful. How could he have not known that about Colby? He knew Colby had never been the biggest fan of dating, and had stated time and time again that he preferred the company of his friends over those who might be romantically interested in him... God, how had Sam not known? "I'm sorry." 

"Sorry? For what?" Colby asked in bafflement. 

"That... that I didn't know that, about you," Sam explained, "That you... that you had any reason to think I wouldn't... want you around." He squeezed Colby's shoulder, "Nothing you could say could make me hate you, or not want you in my life." He wasn't sure why he felt like he needed to explain this to Colby, but he didn't want any potential misunderstandings, at all. 

Colby was too important to him for that. 

Colby smiled at him, a real, genuine smile. "I appreciate that, Sam." 

"Cool, cool," Brennan said, smiling at both of them. Sam had honestly kinda forgotten he was there. "Hey Sam, you wanna meet everyone else? Learn a little bit more about everything else?" 

"Uh..." Sam shrugged, nervous but still down. "Yeah, sure, I guess." 

"They're really chill," Colby assured him, "I know Aja like totally got in your face earlier, but she's like... total mom vibes."

"She's Colby's Mommy," Brennan stage whispered to Sam.

"Is not," Colby protested. "We don't have _that_ dynamic." 

"You still gonna let her beat you later?" Brennan asked with a grin, and Sam looked at Colby with alarm. 

"Beat you?"

"Consensually," Colby insisted. "Brennan, at least let Sam breathe for a moment before you start scaring him." 

"I'm not scared..."

"Uh huh," Colby sounded like he _totally_ believed him. "Come on dude, lemme get dressed and then I'll show you around." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is kinda my hand at a lot of things. Realistic kink community portrayal (because there's not nearly enough), fics about rope (and from people who do rope), and asexuality in real life and in the kink community. I'm kinda flying with the headcanon that Colby is ace at the moment (as a demisexual person myself) so I kinda wanted to explore that within the confines of kink. 
> 
> This fic is going to be based on my experiences in my years in the BDSM community (surprise!) so hopefully I do it justice. 
> 
> There will probably be more to this later, but this was all the brain wanted to put out right now. 
> 
> Mentioned "asexual" video (@16:34) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0ipE5gXtF8&t=1011s


	2. Chapter 2

If he ignored the dress code, the age gaps, and the occasional cries from someone getting beaten, Sam could really forget that he was at a BDSM play party. 

After letting Colby pull his clothes back on, Brennan had lead him and Sam back into the living room space. He could hear rock music playing in the background, and the lights were low, colored lights and lamps doing most of the work to light the place. It left a simultaneously homey and mysterious feeling in the air. 

Sam decided he liked it.

The living room space was connected to the kitchen, and Colby let Brennan herd him in there, insisting that Colby needed to eat. 

“Seriously, Wolf, I’ll tell Aja to not play with you later,” Brennan threatened.

”You wouldn’t,” Colby shot back, but scooped himself a spoon of meatballs from the crockpot anyway. 

“If he doesn’t eat, he doesn’t get to play,” Brennan whispered to Sam when Colby was out of earshot.

”Why?” 

“Because the one time I didn’t make sure he ate something he passed out on me,” Brennen said, “Dumbass can’t be doing the kind of rope we do and not have any goddamn food in him.” 

“Gotcha,” Sam nodded. _Make sure Colby eats before play, got it,_ he made a little mental note. Luckily, Colby seemed to be happily tucking into the food so Sam didn’t have to remind him. 

“Let’s go sit down,” Brennan gestured with his head and Sam and Colby followed. Brennan guided Sam around the spanking bench where a new guy had taken up place. “Nice wide margin around scenes if you can,” Brennan explained, “The DMs’ll pull you out of the way the first few times but after that it’s your own fault if you get hit.”

“DMs?” Sam asked, feeling his eyes get wide as he watched a woman repeatedly hit the guy on the bench with floggers.

“Dungeon Monitors, or, for the nerdy, Dungeon Masters,” Brennan grinned. “They’ve got the light up arm bands.” Sam nodded, seeing a few partygoers with the armbands. Aja had one too, he just hadn’t noticed it at the time. “They’re there to make sure everything is as safe as possible and no one’s consent gets violated.” 

“Huh,” Sam said, following Colby to a couch in front of a cross. The cross sat against the far wall, while a wrap around couch lined the wall across from it. Aja sat there, scooting over when she saw the guys approaching. “Hey,” She smiled at them. “How are you two doing?” 

“Doing okay,” Brennan answered, popping down next to her, and gesturing for Sam to join him on the couch. 

Sam eyed the remaining room. It was only just enough for him to slide in, with no room for Colby. Colby, however, didn’t seem to mind, grabbing a pillow from a pile on one side of the sofa and settling at Brennan and Aja’s feet. 

“Uh, Col- Wolf, do you wanna...” Sam felt like he should at least offer the seat to Colby.

“Just sit down, Sam,” Brennan pat the seat again. “He’s good where he is.” 

“Uh... Okay...” Sam said, still not sure what was going on, but he sat down all the same. He glanced at Colby, who was watching him carefully. “You okay, dude?” 

“Yeah,” Colby answered instantly, but his eyes moved to Brennan, and Sam could see a little bit of anxious discomfort in his face. “Uh... Taylor...”

”You wanna explain it or should I?” Brennan asked.

”Explain what?” Sam asked, looking between the two of them. 

“Uh...” Colby’s cheeks had turned faintly pink, but he spoke anyway. “So like... in real life, you know how you and I always have to be like... always so on, and like... on top of stuff?” Sam nodded, knowing exactly the feeling. He knew it manifested as being a massive control freak for Sam, liking to have control of the few things that he could. “So... when I’m here, with these people...” Colby smiled nervously, “I like to... not be like that. I like it when... other people kinda... take charge of what’s going on. It’s... its nice.”

“Uh... okay, that’s cool,” Sam shrugged. Hey, whatever made Colby happy was fine by him. There had been too many times when Sam had been unable to make Colby happy no matter what he did. “But what does that have to do with sitting on the floor?” 

“Uh...” Colby looked away, “It’s not so much the sitting on the floor thing as the uh... sitting at someone’s feet thing?”

“Like a good Wolf pup,” Aja smiled, scratching at Colby’s scalp, and Sam watched Colby almost melt into her fingers, eyes falling shut as he pushed into her hand almost... almost like a dog might. After a moment, he seemed to realize what he was doing, as his eyes opened and body posture stiffened. He was blushing harder, eyes searching out Sam’s in worry. 

_Please don’t think I’m weird_, the expression on his face begged Sam. 

Which Sam totally didn’t. It was a little different, and maybe just a _little_ weird, but then, that was Colby. When had Colby ever been anywhere near normal? 

It was kinda their whole brand. 

Sam shrugged again. “Hey, you do you dude.” 

Colby still seemed on edge. “You’re sure this isn’t too weird?”

“I mean, what part of today hasn’t been?” Sam asked with a chuckle, seeing a smile tug at Colby’s lips too. “But its not too weird, dude. And like, we’ve had some pretty weird conversations. You like it when people take control sometimes. That's fine. I'm sure there are five million CEOs who would agree with you." 

Colby grinned then, a real one, even as he shook his head in wonder. "Thanks dude." 

"Speaking of which," Sam turned to Brennan. "What the hell were you two doing earlier?" 

"The rope things?" 

"The rope things," Sam confirmed. 

"Okay, so..." Brennan's face lit up. "It's this thing called shibari, or kinbaku, depending on who you ask. It like, came out of a bunch of Japanese dudes making porn in the 1970s, but now there's a lot of people who do it for fun and, well, for sex obviously but that's not what me and Colby do." 

Sam could see that. That was why he had assumed they did it at first. "So why do you do it?" Sam asked, looking down at the rope marks he could still see fading on Colby's arms. The red lines left behind looked almost like perfect, parallel scratch marks. 

"I know we both really like the challenge," Brennan followed his gaze to Colby. "It... it becomes this really cool like, zen, flow state for me."

Colby nodded in agreement. "I like pushing my body," Colby looked up at Sam. "I like seeing what I can take, pushing myself to my limits..." He grinned widely then, "The endorphin high is pretty nice too." 

"Endorphin high?" 

"I mean, you saw me, right? It was... intense," Colby shrugged, "Its like, an endorphin rush, because of everything I'm trying to process and handle at once."

"So it doesn't hurt?" Sam had heard Colby's noise of pain. He just wanted to hear Colby's perspective.

Colby shrugged again, "Not in any way I don't like. The pain kinda feeds the endorphins too." 

"Oh..." Sam let his voice trail off, watching Colby lean back into Aja's knees so that she would scratch his head. 

Aja smiled softly at him, before glancing at Brennan. "You think he's still good to play later?" 

Brennan nodded almost instantly. "Yeah. I think he's gonna need it. He almost dropped earlier when we had to pull out of space real quick." 

Sam didn't quite know the context of the words used, but he still knew that it was something that he should probably feel bad for. "Sorry..." 

But Colby cut him off. "Dude, you had a pretty logical reaction to what you saw," Colby said quietly, "Just was... kinda rough on my brain."

Aja winced, "Sorry Wolf," and Sam watched as she met Colby's eyes and grabbed a fistful of his hair, watching Colby's whole body melt against her. "Oh yeah, he'll space very quickly." 

Sam blinked, before he shook his head. "Uh... drop? Space?" There were too many words, too many definitions. He felt bad to keep asking but he was lost again. 

Brennan glanced at Aja, who started explaining. 

Space was, as Sam understood it, an altered mental state where brain chemicals and endorphins kinda warped the way the brain perceived reality. Drop happened, at least for Colby, when he had to come out of space too quickly, and the endorphin levels crashed. Exactly what Sam had made happen when he burst in on their scene. 

"Shit, I'm sorry," Sam looked at Colby, but his friend was no longer with him. Colby was leaning against Aja, his eyes closed, face slack, and lips parted. "Uh..."

"Wolf?" Brennan leaned forward, tapping Colby's face with a hand. 

"Huh?" Colby opened his eyes, blinking slowly at Brennan, before his eyes caught Sam's. He stiffened slightly, seeming to be trying to come back to himself again. 

"No, dude, you're okay," Sam shook his head quickly. "Don't worry about me. I'm just... I'm here." 

"I just don't wanna freak you out..." 

Brennan, thankfully, came to the rescue, seeming to realize that they needed a topic change. “You wanna learn some rope Sam?”

“Uh...” Sam felt a small amount of panic seize at his chest. “I don’t want to, like... hang Colby from the ceiling...”

Colby laughed, “Don’t worry, dude, I don’t want you to hang me from the ceiling either right now,” He grinned at Sam.

”I mean, everything’s suspendable once,” Brennan shrugged, and Colby tossed a bitch face over his shoulder. 

“Really, Taylor?” 

“Uh...” Sam didn’t like the sound of that. “What...”

”Don’t worry about it, Sam. We’ll just do something simple, like a cuff. One-oh-one stuff,” Brennan shrugged. “I’m sure Wolf would let you practice on him.”

Sam almost thought he caught a look between Colby and Brennan, but maybe he was just imagining things. “Yeah,” Colby said, “That would be okay.” He looked up at Sam. “You okay with that?” 

Sam shrugged. He could definitely practice on Colby, if he was okay with it. “Okay, why not?”

“I’ll go get my rope!” Brennan hopped off the couch.

Colby glanced at Sam in the wake of Brennan’s departure. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Sam.” He reminded him softly. “If anything makes you uncomfortable... we stop.”

“I’m okay, dude,” Sam promised, leaning forward to rest a hand on Colby’s shoulder. “I’ll let you know.”

Colby searched his eyes, before nodding. “Okay,” He said simply.

Sam jumped as a hank of rope hit him suddenly in the chest. Brennan laughed, and Colby joined in at the attempted fumble recovery Sam made. “Let’s do this!” Brennan grinned. 

Thirty minutes later, Sam felt pretty dang accomplished with the little cuff he had managed to tie around Colby’s wrist. The three of them had all moved to the floor, Colby offering both of them a wrist to tie on. There had been words that Sam hadn’t even begun to retain (he was pretty sure they weren’t in English), but when Sam’s cuff (or single column tie as Brennan called it) didn’t fall apart when he tugged on it, Sam was very pleased. 

“Nice job, Sam,” Colby grinned at him, passively letting Sam manipulate his arm. 

“See, not so hard,” Brennan was already untying his own cuff. 

Sam shook his head, untying his as well. “Yeah, but this is the easy stuff, right?” 

“I mean, kinda?” Brennan was retying the single column. “Everything else you do is really just a variation on this tie.”

Sam remembered the elaborate as hell harnesses he had seen earlier, looking at Brennan disbelievingly. “That stuff you were doing earlier looked nothing like this.” 

“Not to you,” Brennan said, watching as Sam finished untying his cuff. “But like, as you start doing this more...” He pulled Colby’s other wrist from Sam, fingers moving suddenly faster as he fashioned another cuff joining that wrist to the first. Colby let him, quietly watching Brennan tie. “You realize that there’s all these pieces, and...” And then Colby’s wrists were pulled over his head and behind his neck, as Brennan shifted to sit behind him. He wrapped the rest of the line around Colby’s chest, knotting it in place with some crazy knot that Sam totally missed, “Everything is just those pieces in a new order, for whatever you need them for.” Brennan moved back from Colby, still grinning as Colby tested the tie. 

“You make that look so easy...” Sam commented, watching Colby settle into the tie, clearly accepting that it wasn’t going to move. 

“Been doing this for two years, dude,” Brennan leaned back against the sofa. “I would hope I made it look easy. I could show you that tie if you wanted.” 

But Sam shook his head. “Nah, dude, if you teach me any more I’ll forget all of it.” 

Brennan shrugged, “Sure thing. Next time.” 

“Yeah, maybe next time,” Sam agreed. 

“No worries,” Brennan grinned at Colby, who was now shifting in the rope again, “I’ll just watch this for a little bit.” 

“Watch... what?” Sam asked, looking at Colby and wondering what he was supposed to be seeing.

”Taylor, I hate you,” Colby glared at Brennan, closing his eyes and grunting as he pushed his arms back with his head, a look of mild discomfort on his face.

“Colby?” Sam looked between his best friend and Brennan, “What’s going on?” 

“He’s being an asshole,” Colby grumbled, shifting again. 

Sam was confused. “Uh... what?” 

“This tie is like, deceivingly shitty,” Brennan said, his smile gaining a slightly sadistic tinge. “It’s a bit of a predicament. See, he can let his arms relax and strain his neck, or let his neck relax and hold his arms up.” Brennan lifted Colby's chin so that he could meet his eyes, "So the longer he stays here... the more painful it'll get..." Colby glared at Brennan again, but the look was less harsh as Colby had started to get that far away look on his face again. 

“Uh...” Sam was torn. Colby looked uncomfortable. “So... should you untie him or...”

”Nah,” Brennan shook his head, retreating back to the couch. “He’ll be fine.” 

“But he looks really uncomfortable...”

”He likes it.” Sam looked at Colby to check his reaction to Brennan’s words, but his eyes had closed again, and he seemed to be breathing into the tie, a look on his face like he was processing something. “He’ll tell me if he really wants out.” 

Fortunately, Colby didn’t let Sam worry for too long. “I’m... I’m okay, Sam...” Colby murmured, and the irritation had left his voice. “He’s... he’s not wrong...” 

“Okay...” Sam watched the two of them with a strange fascination. Something had... shifted. There was something in the air, something thicker, something that felt... quietly intense between them. He fell into silence, just watching the two of them, watching Colby.

His eyes were closed, but his face still moved, letting Sam watch as the sensations were received and processed. Brennan’s grin had faltered in its brilliance, but a more intense look had replaced it. Brennan’s body was relaxed, leaned back against the sofa, but he was acutely focused on Colby. Properly this time, Sam got to see the new dynamic between the two of them, Brennan giving Colby the outlet he needed to push himself and his limits, Colby sinking into his head and his body as he tried to sustain this tie.

It was so similar to the energy he only now could remember registering when he had first walked in on their suspension. 

This was... they weren’t just playing around anymore. 

As the minutes ticked on, Sam looked around, and saw that some of the other partygoers had paused in their conversations to watch Brennan and Colby. They must have felt it too. Aja’s gaze moved between Colby and Brennan and the rest of the party, probably making sure no one got close enough to interrupt their... their scene? Was this a scene? They weren’t really doing anything but the energy change between them was tangible. 

Colby was struggling harder now, Sam could see it. He was changing positions more often, shifting onto his knees and back down, the mild discomfort on his face had amped up and merged with an expression of pain. The low grunts and grumbles had changed to outright whimpers, some distressed noise caught high in his throat. He had started to tremble, and Sam didn’t know how much longer he could watch this. 

The distress must have shown on his face, because Brennan held up a hand in his direction, palm towards him in the universal “hold on a moment” gesture. Brennan didn’t take his eyes off Colby as he did this. He seemed to be waiting for something.

Sam waited a few more moments with baited breath, trying so hard to let them just do their thing, but Colby just sounded so honestly in pain that it was getting harder to trust them. He just wanted to rush over there and untie his best friend...

And then, it happened. 

Colby opened his eyes, and Sam was alarmed to see tears in them. He met Brennan’s eyes and whispered, “Red.” 

And then Brennan was moving, instantly undoing the rope holding Colby’s wrists behind his head. “Easy there, Wolf,” He breathed, slowly moving Colby’s arms back in front of him. Colby let out a quiet whine at the movement, and Brennan pulled Colby into his chest, pulling Colby’s wrists towards him and untying them as he let Colby breathe. Colby shuddered, curling tighter against Brennan, pulling his wrists into his chest as Brennan pulled off the last of the rope. 

“Good boy,” Brennan praised quietly, and lifted warning eyes to Sam, warning him not to say anything about that phrase. “Good job, Wolf.” 

Colby whimpered again, tucking his head in against Brennan’s chest. Colby’s breath came in quick pants, but it slowly evened out as Brennan stroked his back, all the while whispering comforting things to Colby. Sam watched it all with quiet curiosity, the worry having abated when he watched the way Colby sagged into Brennan. 

He liked it. Clearly.

The pain was wanted.

It was just so counter intuitive to Sam, watching Colby in pain and not doing something about it. But... this was something that Colby liked, and wanted. So he’d be okay with it. It just might take some getting used to.

Aja seemed to have picked up on his train of thought. “They can be a little intense,” She murmured in his ear. “The way Wolf spaces... it can be a lot if you’re not used to it or expecting it. I didn’t the first time.” 

“He does this every time?” Sam asked back, mildly alarmed, “Like... is that healthy?” 

Aja shrugged. “He can snap out of it if needed,” She explained. “You saw that earlier.” 

Sam winced. He still felt bad about that. “But it’s bad for him to do that?” 

“Fucks with his head,” Aja was watching Colby with an almost motherly look in her eyes. “It’s better when he comes up naturally.” Sam nodded, not feeling the need to reply to that one. 

Colby’s eyes had finally drifted open, and he looked over at Sam. Sam could see the worry brewing on Colby’s face, so he smiled at him, a quiet reassurance on his face. Colby smiled back, his face relaxing. Brennan nodded thankfully at Sam, readjusting as Colby slowly sat up. He stretched out his arms, making a happy groan as he pulled an arm across his chest. “Hey Sam...” He breathed. 

“Hey...” Sam answered, leaning forward. “How are you doing?” 

Colby blinked lazily at him, a happy smile on his face. “I’m good,” He answered. “Are you?” 

Sam considered it for a moment, but then nodded. “Yeah,” He answered. “I’m good.” 

Colby nodded. “Good,” He murmured. 

Brennan was smiling softly too. “That was... unexpectedly intense,” He commented. 

Colby chuckled. “When is our play not?” 

Brennan shrugged. “Good point.” 

“And very fun to watch,” Aja commented with a soft smile. 

"That was... that was intense." Sam adopted Brennan's word as he moved to sit back on the sofa. Because he didn't really have another way to describe what he had just watched. 

Colby shrugged, smiling faintly. "It's kinda what we do?" He offered, looking back at Brennan with affection in his eyes.

Sam felt the tiniest tinge of jealousy, watching how close Brennan and Colby had gotten. It wasn't the first time he'd been jealous of Colby and Brennan's relationship, but this was... this was something that Sam couldn't offer Colby. Colby was his own man obviously, and could do whatever he wanted, but... the small amount of insecurity lingered. 

"Wouldn't mind if you tied him up like that when we play," Aja commented to Brennan. "I'm no good with that fiddly rope stuff." And Sam was reminded that at some point tonight, Aja was still planning on beating Colby. Which was a really weird thing to say. 

"Yeah, sure..." Brennan started, but Colby shook his head.

"I don't think that will be sustainable for me," Colby grimaced. "You can have me tied like that, but I won't be able to go as long as you and I both want to. If you just tie my hands together I'll be able to go longer." 

Aja nodded, accepting his reasoning. "Understandable," She nodded. "You still up for that?" 

Colby nodded, glancing at Sam before he spoke. "Yeah, I'm still down." But his eyes were still asking if Sam was okay.

Sam gave him another reassuring look. "I'm good, dude. Just kinda taking everything in. You do what you want." 

Colby smiled at him, "Sounds good."

"Hey," Brennan pointed at the cross on the wall where a couple were setting up a rack of floggers and crops and... other thing Sam didn't recognize. "Looks like Kay and Roger are playing." 

Colby scooted over towards Sam when he spoke next, "Roger's like... stupid good with floggers. You gotta watch this." Colby settled on the pillow on the ground, but this time the pillow found itself at Sam's feet instead of Aja's.

Brennan sat back down on the couch too, casting a look at Sam and Colby. "This'll be fun," He commented, but there was a new tone in his voice, and Sam thought about putting a word to it, but then the floggers started moving, and Sam was very much distracted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, some clarifying discussions, and maybe Aja and Colby's scene.
> 
> I've been having a lot of fun with this one. It's cool to write about the shenanigans that go on at kink parties, because they're simultaneously exactly and nothing like what you expect. 
> 
> As always, hope you guys are enjoying. Lemme know what you think or if you have any questions about what's happened so far!


	3. Chapter 3

The flogging scene was almost a show in of itself. When Sam had imagined what someone getting flogged would look like, it had a much more medieval whips and chains sort of feel. This... this had almost felt like a art form. A song with a heavy baseline had come on, and Roger’s floggers had danced to it, twisting and twirling around each other in spirals that Sam couldn’t keep up with. Kay seemed to be enjoying the sensations too, not yelling or crying, but quietly leaning into the impact. The three of them danced together, Roger, Kay, and the floggers, and Sam felt more of that thickened air, that energy shift. This one was lighter, more playful, but it was definitely there. 

When they both pulled back from the cross, Kay’s back, ass, and legs were striped red, but a smile was vibrant across both of their faces. 

“That was... not what I expected,” Sam commented over Colby’s shoulder as the couple wiped down the cross. 

Colby looked up at him with a small smile. “Floggers don’t have to hurt,” Colby explained quietly to Sam. “They can just be a different sensation. Like, there are some that suck, like Aja has this rubber one that just... _ow..._ but the lighter ones just feel nice.” 

“You love that one,” Aja smirked at Colby.

Colby rolled his eyes, “Yeah, but like, I’m a masochist.” He glanced back at Sam, “Uh... someone who...”

”Likes pain?” Sam cocked an eyebrow at him. “I know what a masochist is, dude.” 

“Right, sorry,” Colby looked away briefly, looking slightly embarrassed. “I’m not sure like, how much you need explained.”

Sam shrugged, “If I don’t know, I’ll ask?” He offered. 

Colby nodded, smiling again. “Sounds good!”

”Hey Aja!” Sam heard Jason’s voice, and he looked over to see Jason wandering over with a couple in their thirties trailing behind him. “Any chance you’re in the mood for a toy bag tour?” 

Aja grinned. “I’m always in the mood for a toy bag tour,” She looked at Sam and Colby. “You two want to join?” 

“Aja’s got like... a crazy amount of stuff,” Colby explained quietly to Sam, “You wanna see it?” 

“Uh...” Sam blinked, “Maybe later? I’m kinda a little...” He lost the words he wanted to say for a moment. _Overwhelmed_ was the world he meant, but Colby seemed to understand. 

“No worries,” Colby looked back over at Aja, “Maybe later? Then we can negotiate while you’re doing it.” 

Aja nodded. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll be back.” She stood up and lead Jason and the couple away from the couches. 

Colby leaned back against Sam’s legs. “You doing okay, dude?” He asked.

Sam nodded, only wincing a little bit, “It’s just, a lot of new,” He answered honestly. “Not bad, just... a lot.” 

“You wanna step outside?” Colby asked. “It’s quieter out-“

And then a large figure moved to stand in front of them and Colby trailed off. Sam looked up to see Dave, the gruff looking man from earlier, looking down at Colby. “Hey Wolf, you know where your Dom is? I wanted to ask him about that rope stuff.” 

Once again, Sam got that uneasy feeling in his stomach, directed not only at the man’s presence, but the way he loomed over Colby’s seated form. He was borderline in Sam’s personal space, so he had to _way_ be in Colby’s. 

Colby looked up, his face setting in a way that Sam knew was him carefully schooling his expression. Seems like Colby felt something was off too. “He’s not my Dom,” Colby corrected, and he almost managed to keep the tightness out of his voice, “We just tie. But I think he’s outside by the hot tub.” 

Dave looked up at Sam, and Sam nodded in confirmation, not sure why his defensive instincts were flaring. Brennan had wandered off halfway through the flogging scene to go and talk to some people. Sam had even offered Colby the seat he left behind on the couch, but Colby had declined. 

“Oh, okay,” Dave nodded, “I’ll go find him then.” He leered at Colby for a few more moments before wandering away towards the back of the house. 

Sam watched Colby’s shoulders unclench as Dave walked away. “What is that guy’s _deal_?” Sam asked Colby quietly. 

“This is his house,” Colby explained, still staring off into the direction Dave had left. “He kinda creeps some people out, but you can’t ban people just for being creepy, and this is kinda his place so...” He shrugged. “He’s not dangerous, as far as I know. I just don’t really like interacting with him.” 

“Gotcha,” Sam nodded, still bristling a little bit at the way Dave had talked to Colby, almost like he was talking _down_ to him. “Dom?” 

“Uh... Dominant. As in Dominant and submissive,” Colby explained, wincing a little bit, “A lot of people assume that because Brennan ties me and we come together that we’re in some kind of Dom/sub relationship.” He shrugged, “I mean, I get it, but it’s kinda annoying. Especially like, when people assume that because you sit somewhere on the “s” side of the slash... uh, the submissive side of the D/s slash,” He clarified at Sam’s confused look, “That you’ll be submissive to them too.”

”And you do? “Sit on the “s” side of the slash”?” Sam asked, not judging, just clarifying. 

Colby nodded, “Generally,” He said, “Depends on the person, of course, but yeah, I tend to fall into that role more often.”

“Huh,” Sam peered around the room, taking in some of the pairs he saw, the collars he had seen earlier. “So... do you have a Dom? Dominant?” There was some sort of feeling in his chest, but he couldn’t quite place it as he waited for Colby’s response.

“No,” Colby turned away slightly, but not before Sam saw his cheeks color. “Not uh... not at the moment.” He looked out on the party, “No one’s been quite the right fit.” 

“Huh,” Sam said, not sure what else to say. “And what would be the right fit?” 

Colby shrugged, a pensive look on his face, “I dunno dude, always kinda figured I’d know when I felt it. Some sort of like... relationship that just made it work.”

”Relationship?” Sam asked, feeling kinda bad for asking all of these questions but still hopelessly confused, “I thought you said you were ace?” 

“Yeah,” Colby said, “A-_sexual_, not a-romantic.” 

That didn’t help. “Uh...” 

“Okay, so like...” Colby pursed his lips, looking like he was trying to organize his thoughts. “Like, I’m not just like... interested in sex for the sake of sex? Like... I don’t look at people and get like boners, right?” 

“I mean, I don’t either,” Sam pointed out.

”Yeah, but like...” Colby thought for a moment, staring at the ground. “Okay,” He turned back to Sam, ”So, you look at someone and want to bone them right? Like, I know you and Kat are fucking, so...” Sam felt his cheeks heat up as Colby continued, “So like, you look at her and want to have sex with her right?” 

“I mean, yeah,” Sam nodded. “Isn’t that, like, normal?”

Colby twitched a little bit, “I guess? I don’t know. Like, I’ll have sex if like, my girlfriend wants it but like... I don’t just look at people and want to fuck them. Like, even people I’m dating. Uh...” He frowned, “This is hard to explain... like, I’ve never looked at _anyone_ and been like, yeah, I wanna fuck you. Like I’ll do it because it feels good and it makes her happy but like... I’m not like, sexually attracted to people.”

Sam blinked at him, but he guessed that made a little more sense. It was just something he didn’t know was a thing. “That... that’s interesting, dude.”

“Does it make sense?” Colby asked, and Sam’s chest hurt at the struggle on Colby’s face.

“Yeah, I mean, it makes sense like... as much as I can understand it,” Sam said. 

“Gotcha... oh! I got it!” Colby’s hands moved in excitement. “So like... you’re straight. You know how you can look at a dude, and you know objectively he’s attractive,” Colby explained, “But like, you don’t wanna bang him, right?”

Sam thought about it, and then nodded. “Yeah, I guess I see what you mean. But like, with everyone?”

Colby nodded, “Yeah.” 

“But like... you’ve had sex,” Sam pointed out. “You called me about it afterwards the first time, with Jessica.”

”Oh yeah,” Colby chuckled, nostalgia passing over his face, “I did. But like... I _can_ have sex, dude. Asexual doesn’t mean I can’t. Just means that I’m not going to spend a lot of time seeking it out.” He narrowed his eyes at Sam, “I’m not like you, where I get grumpy if I don’t get laid for a few days.” 

“Hey,” Sam nailed Colby with a look. 

Colby laughed, “It’s true and you know it.”

”I’m not that bad...” Sam grumbled. 

Colby quirked an eyebrow at him. “You get really bitchy, dude.”

“Shut the fuck up, Colby,” Sam kicked him lightly and Colby chuckled again. 

“No worries, bro,” Colby shrugged. “Just one less thing that I have to deal with personally. Unless I’m with you,” He smirked. 

Sam rolled his eyes, not dignifying his statement with a response. He ran through the conversation in his head, remembering an earlier comment. “So... aromatic? You said something about that?” 

“Oh! Yeah,” Colby nodded. “So like, a_sexual_ is not really interested in sex, for me anyway, I think it’s different for different people, but like, a_romantic _would be not really interested in romantic relationships. So like, in it just for the sex and not the romance? Or just, just not really interested in people beyond being friends.” He turned to face Sam just a little bit more. “So like, for me, I’m interested more in dating people than any of the sex that comes with it.” 

“Oh...” Sam’s brain still felt a little overwhelmed, but he was pretty sure he understood what Colby was trying to get at.

Colby sighed, “I’m sorry, bro, I wish I had a better way to put it.” 

“No, like, I get it,” Sam said, “I just like...” He gestured with his hands aimlessly. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything.”

Colby dipped his head in acknowledgement. “I get that. It’s a lot at first. I forget that sometimes.” 

Sam looked out over the party. The dress code had steadily declined over the night, with more and more people being half or not at all clothed. Some had even changed into onesies, or were wrapped up in blankets post play. It was an environment that Sam would have thought would be threatening previous to tonight. More and more he was starting to just feel the easy comfort that these people found in each other, in being here like this. 

In being able to be themselves.

“It’s cool though,” He said, “Like... I wanna say I’m surprised by all of this but... I’m not? It’s never something that I would have come up with but now that I know it... it fits you, dude.” 

Colby gave him a small, grateful smile. “That’s... I appreciate that, Sam.” He looked away. “I’ve been uh... kinda nervous to tell you about this.”

”Why?” Sam asked, and now that he was thinking about it, he wasn’t sure why Colby hadn’t told him. They didn’t tell each other _everything _that went on in their lives but the big stuff they did. And this was kinda a big stuff. “Colby, you’re my best friend. I wasn’t going to judge you or anything.” He felt a small amount of hurt in his chest at the idea. 

“It wasn’t that,” Colby’s eyes flew to his. “It was... God, I don’t know dude. It started while Brennan and I were first getting close and you were spending more time with Kat, and at first it wasn’t like all that serious, but then we started going out to more things and _tying all the time_...” He fiddled with his fingers. “And I meant to tell you, honestly, but then you were busy, or something came up, or I was in a place where...” He looked away, sadness falling over his face, “It just... got away from me.” 

Sam nodded, his thoughts racing. "You were going to tell me tonight, right? This is the party you were inviting me to?"

Colby nodded too. "Yeah. Although my plan was definitely _not_ for you to walk in on Brennan suspending me," He grinned faintly. 

Sam looked away for a moment, out at the party. He wanted to feel hurt, and he did, just a little bit, but he knew that he and Colby hadn’t had a lot of downtime since moving to LA and their channels really taking off. So he got it. “I mean, I get it,” he shrugged. “I guess I’m here now, right?” 

“Yeah,” Colby smiled up at him again, and Sam was glad to see that look of sadness gone from his face. 

"Hey Sam! Wolf!" Sam heard Brennan's voice calling their names. He turned to see Brennan striding towards them, a look of mild worry on his face. Upon seeing them, the look cleared. "You guys okay?" 

"Yeah, we're okay," Colby said, pulling off Sam's legs a little bit to address Brennan. Sam didn't even realize he had gotten used to the warmth of Colby's body until he drew back, and he found himself missing the contact as soon as it was gone. "What's up?"

"Dave was asking me about you and Sam," Brennan grimaced, saying the man's name with a certain distaste. "I wanted to make sure he hadn't done anything that made you two uncomfortable." 

"No more than usual," Colby shrugged, a look of discomfort on his face. "Assuming you're my Dom and all." 

Brennan rolled his eyes, "God, how many fucking times have we had that conversation with him? I swear Wolf, I can talk to him if you want..."

"No, dude, its fine," Colby insisted. "I can deal with him." 

Brennan cast a look around the room, as if scanning for Dave. "Just let me know," He said. Sam made a mental note to keep his own eye on the man. 

Because he didn’t like the way Dave looked at Colby. 

“Anyway,” Brennan said, “Aja’s about ready to play if you are, Wolf.” 

Colby nodded. “Yeah, I’m down.” He looked at Sam, but Sam had already anticipated his questions. 

“Yeah, I’m okay. Let’s do it,” He didn’t want Colby doing or not doing anything because he was worried about Sam. Colby grinned nervously, but let Brennan reach down and pull him to his feet. Sam climbed up after him, tossing a smile at Colby when his friend turned around to check on him. Colby’s face was open and excited, so Sam started mentally preparing himself to see Colby in pain again. 

But Colby enjoyed it. So it was okay, right? 

Sam followed Brennan and Colby outside to the patio, where Aja had a huge bag open. Sam felt like his eyes might have bugged out of his head as he saw the pile of implements stacked inside. Aja looked over at them as they approached. “Perfect timing,” She said. “Wolf, can I steal your arm?” 

“Uh, yeah,” Colby said, holding his arm around to Aja. 

She gripped his wrist, exposing his forearm before she turned to address the couple again. “So this leaves some really fun marks,” Aja said with a grin, hitting Colby on the forearm with what looked like a bundle of metal sticks. Colby hissed in a breath, an expression of pain crossing his face, but it was almost immediately followed by a grin. 

“I love this thing,” Colby commented, examining his arm as Aja pulled the stick away. 

Sam rolled his eyes. Of course he did. 

And then he saw the marks left behind. The lines were red and angry, and Sam could see the darkening of purple blood bruises under the skin. “Shit,” He muttered. 

Colby glanced at him, his grin faltering slightly. “Uh...”

Sam waved him off. “Dude, it’s fine. Just new.”

“You’re new too?” One of the couple, the woman, asked. 

Sam nodded, trying to distract his brain from the worrisome thoughts it was having. “Yeah, first time. He said we were going to a party,” He jerked his thumb at Colby, who grinned sheepishly. But there was relief in his face too, relief that Sam was being playful and sarcastic. Being comfortable.

God... it really was important to Colby that Sam be okay with this... 

“Down for playing with this?” Aja tapped Colby's arm with the toy again and he let out a surprised groan. 

“Oh yeah,” And there was that spacey look in Colby’s eyes again. Just the start of it, but Sam knew it was coming now. And that he’d see it stronger during their scene. And then Colby was looking at him, and there was worry in his eyes. “Sam...”

Sam looked away, trying desperately to school his expression. “I’m fine,” He insisted. He looked at Aja. “Do you have any blindfolds in there?” Because he didn’t want Colby watching his expression during the scene and taking himself out of space.

Aja’s eyebrow popped up, and she looked at Colby. “How do you feel about that, Wolf?” She asked, making the logical conclusion from Sam's question. 

But Colby frowned. “Sam, can we talk for a moment?”

Sam's stomach dropped. ”Sure,” Sam nodded, feeling his cheeks heat up because he didn’t want to be a bother, and this was Colby’s thing, and he didn’t want to ruin it for him. 

Colby stepped away from the group, gesturing with his head for Sam to follow him. Sam trailed after him, letting Colby lead him out of the screen enclosure of the patio and out into the yard. There was nothing but fields and forest for miles, and when Sam glanced up, he could even see the stars that the LA lights usually choked out. 

It was peaceful. 

Colby caught his eyes. “Sam... dude, what’s going on?” 

Sam looked down at the rapidly bruising lines on Colby’s forearm, tracing up to the lingering rope marks on his arms, before he looked back up at Colby. “I’m just... it’s weird, for me... to... like, see you in pain. And not do anything about it.” 

There was apprehension on Colby’s face, but relief there as well. “So it’s not that...” He crossed his arms over his chest self-consciously. “That like, it’s too weird...”

”No, dude, like, I don’t...” He felt his face scrunch up and he looked away. “It’s hard to watch someone hurt you. Like, I know you want it, and that you like it but..." His teeth pressed together, "Everything in me just wants to stop it.” He looked up at Colby again, “But like, this is your thing. And I don’t want to mess with it. Just... don’t worry about me, okay? I’ll... I’ll get used to it.” 

Colby’s face softened. He stepped forward and pulled Sam into a hug. Sam sagged into it, not even having realized how much he needed it. “I promise you, I like it,” Colby murmured. "No one's doing anything to me that I don't like." 

"I know..." Sam whispered. "And I'm totally okay with that, like, you do you, it's just..." He wound his fingers into Colby's shirt. "I have a hard time keeping it off my face."

There was a moment of quiet from Colby, before he asked quietly, “You mentioned the blindfold so I couldn’t see your face didn’t you?” 

Sam nodded against his shoulder. “I don’t want to worry about me.” 

“Sam...” Colby squeezed him tighter. “This is a lot. If you’re getting overwhelmed...”

”No,” Sam said firmly. “I don’t... I don’t want you to leave because of me. Let’s just...” He drew back slightly from the hug so that he could see Colby’s eyes, “Let me just watch this scene. I’ll be okay, I just need to process this.”

"And you'd want me blindfolded?"

A jolt of _something_ shot up Sam's spine at his words. What, he wasn't exactly sure, but it wasn't negative so he nodded slowly. "Yeah," He said, "I just think it'll be better... for both of us." 

Colby looked at him for a long moment, hands flexing reflexively on his shoulders. “Okay,” He agreed. “Aja and I can get... kinda intense...” There was warning in his voice. “Especially if I’m blindfolded. I uh... I space a _lot_ harder.” 

“Okay,” Sam nodded an acknowledgement. “I’ll be fine.” Good. Then maybe he wouldn't notice Sam processing all of this. 

Colby searched his eyes for another long moment, before finally nodding back. “Okay.” He stepped back from Sam. “Okay.” A smile of excitement was tugging at his lips and Sam couldn’t help but mirror it. 

This really _did_ make Colby happy. Sam would learn to be okay with it. 

And he would reexamine exactly how Colby asking him what _he wanted_ for the scene made him feel at a later date. 

Sam clapped Colby on the shoulder. “Let’s do it,” And Sam followed Colby back to the others. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I meant to get to the scene this chapter, but a lot of explanation stuff ended up happening. 
> 
> So next chapter! 
> 
> As far as Colby's asexuality, I'm not trying to generalize out to all ace folk, but this is what ace means for him in this universe. 
> 
> Hope y’all are enjoying, as always! Lemme know if I’m explaining everything well enough.


	4. Chapter 4

Aja did an abbreviated toy bag tour while she and Colby negotiated their scene. 

There were way too many toys for Sam to keep up with. And there was so much variety. There were toys that Sam recognized from certain corners of the internet (Floggers, whips, riding crops and the like), but there were even more things that looked like they could have been picked up anywhere, like baseball bats, ping pong paddles, back scratchers, rulers, kitchen utensils, and even more things that Sam didn’t know the true purpose of. 

Just that Aja was going to use most of them to hurt Colby. 

There were a couple of toys that Colby shook his head to, including a rather innocuous looking plastic or rubber stick, but Sam tried not to be alarmed at the pile of toys that Colby nodded his approval to. 

Some of them looked pretty scary. 

Aja, Brennan, Colby, Sam, and the new couple had moved into what was probably a dining room space during non-play times. A two layered table sat in the middle of the room. It had two padded platforms, and rings screwed into the wooden supports that presumably cuffs could be attached to. 

Colby pulled off his shirt as Aja started to set up her toys on a rack by the table. He pushed his thumbs into his waistband, but paused as he gaze caught Sam’s. “Uh... How dressed do you want me?”

Aja’s seemed confused for a moment, but then she caught the direction of his gaze. “Whatever makes you comfortable,” She answered evenly, sending a meaningful look to Sam. 

“What do you usually do?” Sam asked, catching what was going on here. 

Colby was worried about undressing in front of him. 

Colby’s face colored. “Usually I just don’t wear clothes,” He answered honestly. “The uh... the sensations don’t transfer as well through fabric and uh... I like to feel everything.” 

“Then don’t wear clothes,” Sam said, feeling heat spread through his face too. “Like I said, just do what you would do if I wasn’t here.” Colby looked down, fingers fidgeting at his waistband. He still looked a little disconcerted and lost, and Sam rolled his eyes. Reminding himself to use Colby’s scene name this time, he said firmly, “Wolf, take your clothes off.”

Brennan’s eyes widened minutely, and Aja lifted an eyebrow, but those reactions were wiped from Sam’s mind at Colby’s. He had half expected Colby to snark back at him, say or do something sarcastic, but he did none of those. Instead, his whole body seemed to stutter, eyes flying over to Sam before darting away again. “Okay,” He said quietly, his body seeming to make itself smaller... almost submissive...

And then he seemed to snap out of it, almost before Sam could really register what he had seen. “Wanna see me naked, Sam?” He teased, wiggling out of his jeans with more pizzaz than was strictly necessary. The turnaround was a little jarring, but Sam was happy to fall back into their teasing banter, because what the fuck had just happened...

“Always,” He answered, almost reflexively, ignoring the silence conversation that Aja and Brennan were having behind Colby. Colby shucked out of his underwear, and it gave Sam an excuse to look away and around the room at all of the eyes that were casually watching them. 

When Colby finally climbed up onto the table, Sam got a better idea of how it was supposed to work. He knelt on the lower platform, resting his hands casually on the higher platform. Despite his jesting earlier, he avoided Sam’s gaze now, looking over at Aja. “So... did you want to do the rope restraints or...”

Aja cast both of them an interested look. “I was thinking the shackles might work better for what I have in mind?” Aja said, holding a pair of padded leather cuffs up for Colby’s inspection. “So I can move your hands around?” Colby glanced at Sam again. There was something, something thicker in the air between Sam and Colby right then, and Sam finally noticed it for what it was and what it meant. 

“Wolf?” Aja’s voice was soft. “What do you think?”

Colby seemed to shake himself, breaking his gaze with Sam. “Cuffs are okay.” He held his wrists out as she approached him. His eyes kept darting to Sam, watching him as Aja buckled the cuffs into place. Sam kept seeing flashes of the submission he had briefly glimpsed earlier, but also worry over Sam. He saw a bigger glimpse of it when Aja pulled his wrists down to the table, clipping the shackles into a short chain that connected to the table, locking Colby’s hands off to either side of the top platform. He knelt, slightly bent over now to accommodate his bindings, but still his eyes sought out Sam’s. 

Sam just wanted Colby to relax. And there was only one way that was going to happen. “Aja, can I have the blindfold?”

All eyes turned to Sam. “Sam...” Colby whispered, and he pulled briefly at the cuffs, looking as though he wanted to reach for Sam. But the cuffs held him back. “You sure you’re okay with this?” 

Sam nodded. “Yeah,” He answered honestly. “I’m okay, dude.” 

Colby chewed on the inside of his lip, before nodding. “Okay,” He dipped his head, looking at Aja with acquiescence. “Put it on me then.” 

“Sam.” And then Aja was saying his name, and when he looked over, she was handing him a black piece of faux leather. Sam took it without really thinking about it, but as soon as he felt it in his hands he knew what she had handed him.

The blindfold. 

Sam swallowed, feeling the thing in his hands. There was a buckle on either end of the strip, with two circular panels in the middle. There was some kind of soft padding on the underside, clearly meant to go over the eyes and obscure vision. 

Colby wouldn’t be seeing anything through this. 

He looked over at his best friend, feeling the sudden weight of what he was doing in his chest. When he had told Aja to give him the blindfold, he had consciously known that he had planned to put it on. To actually be in this position however...

Colby was watching him, hands shifting where they gripped the outside of the upper platform. Colby was waiting on him.

”Okay then,” Sam stepped towards Colby, fighting the shaking that wanted to escape through his fingers. 

Colby’s gaze was even. “I want this,” He reminded Sam softly. 

Sam nodded. “I know.” And he lifted the blindfold to Colby’s face. 

Colby’s eyes closed just before the fabric made contact with his face, and it was that little moment more than anything that really hit Sam. Because this was Colby accepting it. Not fighting for another moment of vision. Accepting that Sam was taking that from him, for... for both of them, really. 

Letting Sam and Aja have that power over him. 

Colby leaned into the blindfold as he fastened it, his hands sliding on the buckle and pulling it tight. He heard a soft inhale at his motions, and his eyes flew to Colby’s face. His lips were parted, and Sam could see the parts of him that wanted to relax, wanted to space, but also the parts that were afraid that spacing too quickly would scare Sam. 

But Colby had been right about the blindfold. Sam could almost feel Colby spacing in the way the air shifted between them.

Maybe Colby felt it too. “You still doing okay, Sam?” He asked.

Sam released a breath, hopefully quiet enough that Colby didn’t hear. “Yeah,” He said, “I’m good.” 

“You ready Wolf?” That was Aja. Sam almost jumped. He had almost forgotten that Aja was there. He looked around, seeing that it was more than just Aja and Brennan watching them. There were multiple people watching as they set up, multiple pairs of eyes having just watched that moment between Colby and Sam... He stepped back uneasily, glad that Colby couldn’t see his expression.

Colby shifted on his knees, shifting his grip on the edge of the table. There was a small grin on his face. “Let’s do it,” He answered, and Sam knew he was blind at this point, but he could have sworn Colby looked right at him. 

And then the first blow from the flogger landed.

The way Aja threw floggers was not the same way Roger had. While Roger had seemed to enjoy the art of the throw as much as the use of it, Aja seemed to be using the flogger as a tool. That wasn’t to say that her throws weren’t calculated, she was clearly well versed in the use of the flogger, each swing hitting exactly where she aimed it. It was just interesting for Sam to see the different styles each had. 

The flogger seemed mostly aimed at his back, ass, and thighs. Colby didn’t even seem overly concerned about the impact, his body staying mostly relaxed even as the flogger continued falling. Sam felt a hand on his shoulder, looking back to see Brennan pulling him back towards the wall. “You can sit or stand, but we should give them a little space,” He explained quietly. 

“Okay.”

And that was how Sam found himself leaning against a wall, watching from the side as Aja started hitting Colby harder. The first one seemed to surprise him a little bit, but then he quickly settled back into the happy place he had found before, a pleasant processing look on his face. 

“You doing okay with him?” Brennan asked quietly, quietly enough that Colby wouldn’t hear their conversation. 

Sam let out a breath. “Yeah, I think so? It’s just… rough… for me to see him in pain and to _not_ stop it. I’ve just known him for so long…”

“He’s kinda intense about all of this too,” Brennan commented back. “Like, you know Colby, he doesn’t do anything halfway. This included. It’s kinda scary the first few times. Trust me, I get it.” 

Sam’s gaze was pulled back to Colby when he heard a louder hit, and saw that Aja had switched to another flogger. This one seemed to have more of an impact, as Colby started letting out intermittent sounds in reaction to it. “It scared you too?”

“Dude, I didn’t even realize what was happening at first,” Brennan admitted. “We were… I remember we were trying a torture tie, and I didn’t even realize like… how hard or how long we had been doing it because he didn’t even like, hit the limit that most people do,” He too watched Colby, pensive thoughts passing across his face. “I was still pretty fucking new, and most people would call me on the tie before I got too into it, but Colby…” He grinned wryly, “He never called it. We were spacey as shit and we just kept going until my fingers were bloody and his leg…” He shook his head slowly. “We had to renegotiate limits after that, because I was fucking terrified that he wouldn’t have called it if I hadn’t seen blood and done it myself. And considering some of the shit we do…”

“Like the suspensions?” Sam asked.

Brennan nodded and rolled his eyes, “Oh, that was a whole other conversation. ‘Yes dude, I know not being able to breathe makes you floaty as shit, but you gotta tell me if you’re going to pass out because that scares the shit out of me.’” He crossed his arms. “I haven’t choked him out yet, but I came way too fuckin’ close a few times.”

“Fuck!” Colby yelped as Aja struck him with the flat side of a back scratcher, and he made another noise when she hit him again, but soon settled into the onslaught again, quiet whines and yelps his only reaction. 

“So…” Brennan said, “I’ve been watching you two.”

Sam felt something clench at his stomach. “Oh?”

“Yup,” Brennan nodded slowly. “What’s goin’ on?”

Sam blinked a few times, before he said, “You’re going to have to give me more than that, dude.” 

Brennan sent him a look of exasperation. “That. That whole little number with the blindfold and ‘take off your clothes, Wolf’.” He mocked Sam, and Sam felt heat rush to his face. “Not to mention that it was _your feet_ he sat at earlier.”

“And…?” Sam wasn’t sure what Brennan was trying to get at with the feet thing, but the whole blindfold thing… He frowned, “He wasn’t going to do the scene if someone didn’t say something. He was going to worry about me.”

“Maybe,” Brennan shrugged lightheartedly, “But don’t tell me you didn’t see the way he acted when you got all Dominant around him.” Sam winced, because yeah, he had, but he had almost managed to write it off in his head as some sort of illusion. Brennan was watching him, watching his reactions. “And he sat at your feet, dude. That’s like… kinda a big deal.” 

“Is it?”

Brennan nodded, glancing over at Colby after a particularly indignant yelp. “Yeah,” He said, “It’s kinda a thing that submissives sit at the feet of their Dominants.” 

Sam looked over at Colby, registering that fact as he watched Colby’s body tighten as he processed the pain of the continual impacts. “That… that uh…”

Brennan knocked shoulders with him. “You two should talk about that,” He said, “And the other reason why he waited so long to tell you about all of this.” 

“There’s another…” Sam cut himself off as he looked over at Colby, who was now pushing his upper body up off the table as Aja dug into his back with… what the fuck were those? They looked like brass knuckles but they had dulled claws along the outside. 

“Not now, or after this scene,” Brennan said, not looking at Sam anymore. “But at some point… you guys should talk about it. Because its kinda happening and you don’t know enough to realize it. But he definitely does.” 

“Okay,” Sam said faintly, fighting his instincts to run to Colby at the cry that came out of his mouth, fighting the part of him that… kinda wanted to hear it again. 

_Wait... what? _

Aja took advantage of the position Colby had pushed himself up into, dropping the claws on her left hand and reaching up with it to grab his throat. Colby gasped in a breath through a mouth he seemed to have forgotten how to close, whimpering quietly against her hand. 

Sam wasn’t even aware he had taken a step forward until Brennan threw an arm across his his chest. “It’s okay,” Brennan whispered, eyes moving between Colby and Sam. “Just watch.” 

“Is she choking him?” Sam whispered, watching as Aja’s fingers felt along the sides of Colby’s throat. 

“Kinda?” Brennan answered. “It’s called blood choking. And don’t freak out about the name...” He caught Sam right as he had been about to do just that, “You uh...” He watched as Aja pressed with her fingers into his neck on either side of his Adam’s apple, “Fuck, there’s not a not-scary way to say it. You kinda cut blood supply off to the brain?” 

Brennan was right. That sounded very scary. He watched as Colby’s face started turning red. “Is that safe?” He was trying really hard to keep his voice down, because that had been the whole point of the blindfold, that Colby didn’t notice him freaking out. 

Brennan shrugged, a guilty smile on his face, “Uh... kinda? Ish? In the same way that everything we do isn’t really safe in any sort of way but uh...” He chuckled, “He gets high as _hell_ off of it. So they’ve decided the risk is worth the reward.”

As Sam watched, Aja released her hold on his neck, digging the claw into the muscles of his chest instead. Colby shouted, but still leaned forward into her looser but still present grip on his throat. Aja tracked the claw around his chest for a moment, before digging it into his sternum. Colby recoiled, gasping and groaning, but the restraints held him from going too far, and he still had to work through Aja digging claws into the bone. Aja whispered something to Colby, Sam didn’t catch it, but his whole body shuddered, and he even seemed to lean harder into the pressure on his sternum. 

And then Aja pressed her fingers back into the vessels in his neck and Colby went still again. 

It was mesmerizing, the ebb and the flow of the scene. Because even though Sam knew that Aja was _hurting_ Colby, he could also see how much Colby was enjoying it, almost _feel_ how spaced Colby was. 

And _that_... he wanted to be able to do that for Colby. 

“Was it weird?” Sam asked, “When you and Colby started doing this? Started playing?” 

Aja was tapping at Colby’s chest with the bundle of metal sticks Sam had seen before, playing on the already sensitized skin. She did this while she held the blood choke, and Sam could see Colby’s chest rising and falling in short little pants that every so often allowed a whimper to escape. 

“A little bit,” Brennan was still watching them. “I mean, it started we were just at a rope thing for the first time and I needed someone to practice on. It was torture ties, actually.” Aja released the blood choke just as she brought the toy done hard across one pec. Colby’s stomach contracted as a cry was punched out of him. 

“I don’t think either of us expected to space,” Brennan continued. “We were just chatting as I was tying this compression tie on his leg, and then he stopped talking but I didn’t really realize it because I was focusing on the tie...” Colby let out a few more cries as Aja hit him hard across the chest a few times, gripping the hair at the back of his head and pulling it back to stop him from curling in on himself for protection. 

“I heard this noise,” Brennan said, “And that’s when I looked at him and I realized like, oh shit, he’s spaced as fuck,” He was grinning. “It was the first time he’d really done it. From pain anyway.” Red lines bloomed dark and raised across Colby’s chest, and Sam didn’t expect Aja to drop the toy and just use her hand to slap Colby _hard_ on top of the marks. He yelled again, jerking against her grip and the cuffs. 

“After I got him lucid again, and dude, that took a while the first time,” Brennan shook his head, “We talked about it. He wanted to do it again, and I uh... I had to face the idea that I had liked hurting him, cause like... I’m a sadist but like... it was _Colby_...” Sam nodded. He knew the feeling. Watching Colby half contract away, half lean into the blows Aja was covering his chest in... 

“We started doing more,” Brennan continued, “And like, it was weird, at first but like... we got used to it. Like anything i guess. We both enjoyed it so much.”

”And it’s not sexual for you two?” Sam clarified, because even though Colby was naked, there was nothing sexual about this scene. It was intimate, he could feel the connection between Colby and Aja, but... it wasn’t sexual. At all. 

“Nope,” Brennan shook his head. “Completely platonic, dude.”

”Huh,” Sam murmured, but found that he didn’t really have anything else to say. 

Aja hit Colby one more time, hard, before she shoved him back facedown into the table. Colby groaned, pressing his forehead into the table as Aja went back to her toy rack. 

Brennan cast him a look. “He’d play with you, you know, if you asked him.”

“... what?”

”If you asked him,” Brennan gestured at Colby, “He’d play with you.”

”I caught that part,” Sam squeaked. “But he... we don’t... I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing?” He wasn’t sure why that was the defense his brain leaped to, but it was the only thing that came out. Because it should have been something like, _no, I don’t want to play with him_, or_ I don’t think that’s going to be my thing, Brennan,_ but... that excuse? Way too close to the truth. 

Because that intimacy, that closeness... he kinda wanted that.

Brennan shrugged, and Sam felt like he had picked up on the mental struggle that Sam was having. “Yeah, but that wouldn’t be the point. Play isn’t necessarily about playing with the most competent people. It’s about playing with the _people_.” He cast a glance at Aja, scratching lightly at Colby’s back while she viewed her options, “We could show you anything you need to learn.” 

Sam blinked. “Uh...” 

“No pressure,” Brennan turned away, watching as Aja pulled a whiplike looking thing back and snapped it on Colby’s ass. Colby whined in response, jolting against the table. “But like... just something to think about.” 

”Okay...” Sam said faintly. 

And Colby yelped as Aja struck him again. 

They went on for a while, Aja moving through her pile of toys in a way that gave the scene a distinctive ebb and flow. She blood choked him a few more times, cycling through toys that made Colby yell, convulse, and struggle, while still breaking that up with soft floggers or nails on his back. Sam had no idea how long they had been going when Brennan made a small gesture at Aja and she nodded. She hit Colby _hard_ one more time with the stiff rod in her hand before dropping the other hand to his back. 

Colby was breathing hard, his whole torso moving with each inhale and exhale. His fingers gripped the edge of the table so tightly the knuckles had turned white, and his face was pressed firmly into cushioning. Aja hung up the toy, and then she moved to undo the shackles. She unlatched them from Colby’s wrists, one at a time, and Colby pulled them into his chest, still trying to catch his breath. 

She started to reach for the blindfold, but paused, looking over at Sam. He read the question in her eyes;

_Do you want to take it off?_

Brennan bumped against him encouragingly. “Go.” It wasn’t really a suggestion. 

Sam’s heart rate picked up in his chest. They wanted him to do it? After that super intense scene? Brennan murmured in his ear, “Aja doesn’t really do aftercare, so its gonna be you or me holding him while he comes down. And I think you need it more than I do right now.” 

Brennan wasn’t wrong. Sam very much wanted to scoop Colby up in his arms and hold him, protect him after that onslaught. “Okay...” He whispered.

He stepped back towards Colby, moving slowly, deliberately. He was aware of the way the energy in the room had shifted, a strange quiet almost descending after the constant noise of the scene. It made the moment feel like more as he cross the short distance between himself and his best friend. 

Colby was still panting, his arms pulled in tightly to his body. His face was pressed into the table, but as Sam touched the straps of the blindfold, his lifted his head. He seemed to know it was Sam, even before Sam undid the buckle, and slowly pulled the pads away from his eye. Colby blinked a few times, squinting in the light that must have been a bit of a shock after the total darkness of the blindfold. 

“Hey,” He rasped.

”Hey,” Sam murmured. Colby met his eyes, and he looked high as shit, but also tired as hell. “How you doing?” 

“Good,” Colby whispered, blinking slowly. He shivered, “Cold...” 

Brennan was already on it though, and he threw a blanket over Colby. “The couch is open if you two want to head over there,” He offered. 

Colby nodded, but didn’t speak. He shifted to start to stand, and Sam instinctively threw a stabilizing arm over his shoulders. Colby leaned into it, and that was how Sam found himself and Colby, wrapped up together in a blanket on the couch in the main room. Colby pulled the blanket over his shoulders, and nestled into Sam’s chest. What was Sam supposed to do but wrap an arm around him and pull him closer. 

He remembered the words Brennan had murmured earlier, after he and Colby had played. 

_Good boy..._

And he almost said them. 

But then, maybe that was something they needed to talk about later. Colby was snuggled into his chest, and someone was setting up for a scene on the cross in front of them. 

It could wait. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that all came much faster than I expected. No complaints from y’all I’ll assume. 
> 
> What did y’all think about this one? I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and it’s central scene. I hope everything feels organic in the thought processes and what not. 
> 
> As always, lemme know what you thought and I’ll see you all in the next one!


	5. Chapter 5

Colby hadn’t been joking when he said he spaced hard. It was a good twenty minutes after he and Sam had curled up on the sofa and Colby still hadn’t tried to surface from wherever he had spaced to. He just curled into Sam’s chest, eyes closed and breathing soft, his fingers twisted into Sam’s shirt. Sam just watched him, and he could feel the soft smile on his face. 

It had been a while since he had had time like this with Colby, since he had really had the chance to _hold him_, and feel his body weight. Since their depression had been really bad in high school, really... That was when Sam would pull Colby against his chest after school, and tell him everything would be okay and Colby would do the same thing when Sam’s flared up. 

Colby had gained weight since then, his body more substantial against Sam’s, no longer the skinny kid Sam had grown up with. But it was grounding, safe, to feel Colby pressed against him now. 

Brennan had been right. He _had_ needed the aftercare from that scene as much as Colby had.

He let his fingers trace up and down Colby’s back over the blanket. Sam could see the start of bruises on his shoulders that would bloom all over Colby’s back, burst capillaries on the surface of the skin. His fingernails traced off the blanket, brushing over the skin. 

He didn’t expect to hear the breath that Colby hissed in. 

His eyes darted back down to Colby’s face, worried about the pain he might find there. But Colby’s face had relaxed already, and he blinked lazily up at Sam. “Sensitive...” He murmured as an explanation. 

“Sorry,” Sam murmured back, but Colby shook his head against his chest.

“Wasn’t bad...” Colby said, closing his eyes again. “Just sensitive.” And he snuggled closer to Sam. 

Sam blinked a few times, trying to figure out if he had read permission to keep going in that statement. “Not bad as in... keep going?” 

Colby’s eyes opened again, and he looked up at Sam. Some of the floatiness had cleared and that cautious look was back in his eyes. “If you want to...” he said carefully.

Did he want to? Colby was still borderline spaced, even if he was talking again. Sam knew it wouldn’t take much to space him again. 

He remembered Brennan’s words.

_“He’d play with you, you know, if you asked him...”_

He traced the sensitive skin with his fingertips again, watching Colby watch him. He could feel it again, that thickening of the air that came before a scene, tightening like a coiling rope around him and Colby. “Do you want me to?” He asked Colby.

Colby surprised Sam when he broke into a small grin there. “Sam...” he shook his head, “There’s not much I would say no to right now.”

That was what Sam had been afraid of. Colby was still spaced. He couldn’t know if it was Colby or the space talking. With more regret than he thought he would feel, he pulled his hand back from Colby’s skin, pulling the blanket back up to his shoulders. 

The look Colby sent him was full of confusion and hurt and immediately told him that Colby had misunderstood his intentions. “I uh...” He looked away and started fumbling for words but Sam cut him off.

“No, Colby, it’s not...” Sam pulled Colby back into his chest as he started to push himself off, “Colby stop... I want to, but dude, you’re high as shit. I don’t want you to do something you might not be okay with otherwise.” 

Colby paused, looking back at him. The confusion cleared from his face to be replaced by a look of incredulity. “You’re worried if I want it?” He asked.

Sam nodded.

Colby blinked for a few more moments, before settling back against Sam, a much easier smile on his face. “That’s...” He chuckled. “Thank you, Sam...” And Sam was almost taken aback by the sincerity in his voice. 

Sam frowned. “What did I say?”

Colby shook his head slowly, still smiling. “You didn’t... You’re worried about _my_ ability to consent. That’s... just not what I was expecting.” 

Sam was still a little confused, and it must have shown on his face, because Colby shook his head again. “Don’t worry about, dude. It’s just not a connection a lot of people make this early on.”

”Okay...” Sam shrugged, still kinda confused, “But like, you are... were... high as hell...”

”Still am,” Colby offered helpfully.

”_Are_ high as hell then,” Sam corrected, “And like... I felt like if I kept going... that was going to like... turn into something, you know?” Hadn’t they always been taught to not take consent from someone who was impaired? It was usually referring to drugs and alcohol in the classes Sam had sat in on, but space was really another form of drugs right?

Colby nodded, “Yeah, probably.”

”If I’m... If _we’re_ going to like... scene, or something? I just...” He shrugged, and he could feel the heat in his face, sure he was blushing, because he hadn’t meant to have this conversation yet and didn't even really know how he felt about the topic, “I feel like we should talk about it more.” 

“So... that’s something you’re interested in?” Colby asked carefully, and Sam heard cautious hope in his voice. 

“I mean... uh...” Shit, he was not ready for this conversation. “Shit, maybe? It’s still weird to like, think about hurting you, and like... I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing... but like...” He shut himself up before he said something he would regret. 

Colby nodded, thoughts passing rapidly over his face. He sat up, the blanket falling back, and Sam could see the welts and bruises that had spread across his chest, the bundle of red lines that almost looked like some flowering plant. It was... pretty... in a way that Sam never thought he would find bruises. The thought was immediately rejected by his brain, as it reminded him that _Colby was hurt, these bruises existed because someone hurt Colby..._

“It would be easier than you think,” Colby said quietly, reaching for Sam’s hand. “Especially right now. Can I show you something?” 

Sam nodded, letting Colby take the hand closest to him. He pressed it into a fist, redirecting Sam’s knuckles so that they pressed against Colby’s sternum. A look passed over Colby’s face, gone before Sam could recognize it, and Colby instructed, “Press down and rub back and forth.” 

Sam looked at Colby, before looking down at where his fist was pressed, in the center of the red, angry, bruised skin. “This will hurt you?” Sam clarified. 

Colby hesitated, but then slowly nodded. “But it’s good pain,” He explained. 

“Okay...” Sam still wasn’t sure how he felt about this, but he did as Colby instructed, and pressed his knuckles against the bone. 

Colby sucked in a quick breath, pain dancing across his features that faded as Sam almost immediately let up on the pressure. Sam froze for a moment, analyzing that movement and Colby’s reaction and how it made him feel. The feelings were conflicting, and he struggled to sort out what he thought he should want from what he actually wanted. Colby watched him carefully, hands still light on Sam’s. 

Sam took a deep breath in, releasing it slowly through his lips. He had hurt Colby. Had made Colby make that face and take that breath but... He had liked it? 

Was he referring to Colby or himself? 

“Sam...” Colby started, but at exactly the same moment, Sam pressed his knuckles into Colby’s sternum again and Colby lost the words on a sort of half gasp. He held the pressure while sliding his hand up a few inches, and Colby groaned from deep in his chest. “Fuck...” He moved his hand back down and he felt Colby’s whole body jerk against him, jerking back and away from him. 

Shit... this was why Aja had him restrained while she was doing this...

He almost reached for Colby, almost followed him back in his recoil, but he tried to remind himself what they were doing, what can of worms he was opening here. Reminding himself that he was _hurting Colby_... He pulled his hand back and away from Colby. 

Colby was breathing harder than he probably should have been for someone curled up on a couch, eyes on Sam. “Sam...”

”I uh...” Sam said, feeling his heart racing in his chest as he struggled to sort through his emotions. “I’m okay. We uh... we should talk about this later? When we’re both thinking more clearly?” 

He didn’t like the immediate hurt that climbed through Colby’s body. “Sorry...” He whispered, looking away, and honestly looking like he could cry. 

“Colby... Colby, no...” Sam gripped one of Colby’s wrists, reaching for the other one, “Colby, hey, it’s okay, you’re okay.” 

But Colby was moving away, pulling against him ever so slightly. “No, I’m sorry, you said you wanted to wait and I...”

”Colby,stop.” Sam put a certain hardness and command into his voice, and immediately saw the impact it had on his best friend. Colby froze, and Sam took the pause to transfer both of his wrists to one hand. Acting on some kind of weird gut instinct, he reached for Colby’s sternum with his free hand. With Sam’s grip on his wrists, Colby couldn’t balk from the pain this time, and Sam got a drawn out, keening groan from his throat as he dug his knuckles into Colby’s chest. 

Because yeah, he kinda liked this, and he still needed to process that. But he couldn’t have Colby thinking he didn’t want this too.

Colby pulled against his grip, eyes going wide to look at Sam even as pain twisted his features. Sam twisted his hand a little and a whine was pulled from Colby's throat. Sam held his gaze as he spoke. “I’m not saying no,” Sam said, and he almost didn’t recognize the tone in his voice. “I’m just saying we both need to talk about this first, okay?” 

The change was instantaneous. Colby’s shoulders relaxed, his eyes dropping, and his struggles slowed to almost nonexistent. “Okay...” He murmured, before keening again at the pressure to his sternum. Sam tightened his grip on Colby’s wrists, pulling him closer as he pressed harder into Colby’s chest. Colby’s groan was louder this time, and he struggled a little bit against Sam’s grip. “Mmm... easy Sam...” He hissed. 

Sam backed off the pressure, letting Colby have a break. “Sorry...” He whispered, loosening his grip on Colby’s wrists. 

“Mmm... s’okay...” Colby murmured, letting his eyes fall closed again.

“Finding your Dom voice, huh?” Brennan’s voice coming from behind him made both Sam and Colby jump.

Sam released his grip on Colby’s wrists, turning quickly to see Brennan grinning at them. “Uh...” Sam felt his face flush again, looking to see that Colby’s had done the same. “My what?”

“Shut the fuck up, Taylor,” Colby grumbled. He shook himself, and Sam assumed he was probably trying to bring himself back down to Earth. 

Brennan cast a look at Sam. “He doing okay?” He asked, and there was an understated warning there that Sam had better not do anything to change that. 

“Yeah,” Sam nodded, wincing guiltily because he was supposed to be helping Colby come down, not spacing him out again. “Sorry...”

“I started it,” Colby interjected, pulling the blanket up around his waist and Sam was reminded that Colby was actually still naked. “Don’t get mad at him.”

”Takes two to tango,” Brennan warned, but shrugged, “Hey, whatever. I thought it would be harder to get you two to talk about scening anyway. So no complaints.” 

Sam winced but grinned faintly anyway. “It just kinda happened?” He tried.

Brennan shook his head. “I’m starting to think that’s going to be a pattern,” He commented. sending a pointed look at Colby that the guy pretended to not notice. “Anyway, you two doing okay? Post scene and all that?”

“I’m good,” Colby smiled genuinely, but he still glanced at Sam in worry.

“I’m good,” Sam answered, and it was an honest response. He was kinda starting to get it now, why Colby and Brennan did these things, how they could play with pain and reactions. Because he could feel it too, that headspace that he had started to slip into when he had been hurting Colby, holding him in place with his voice as much as his hands... 

Watching as Colby slipped into that submissive headspace... 

There was something niggling at the back of his mind, something to do with all of that, but it didn't seem immediately pressing, so he let it slip away for the time being.

"Anyway," Brennan said, "I'm gonna be heading out soonish, Wolf. Just wanted to check base on if you wanted to ride with me or Sam." 

Sam looked over at Colby, who huffed a brief noise of amusement. "I'm not allowed to drive home after kink parties," he explained. 

"Because you're usually high as shit and useless," Brennan called him straight out. 

Fortunately, it didn't seem like Colby was going to fight him on that. He shrugged. "He's not wrong." 

Sam snorted. "I'd agree with him there." 

Colby rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah..." He started casting a look around the room, "Where are my clothes, anyway?" 

"I've got 'em." Brennan pointed to the corner of the couch at a pile of clothing Sam hadn't even seen earlier. But then, he had been a little too focused on getting Colby to the couch safely.

"Thanks, dude," Colby sent Brennan a thumbs up, "But uh... I think I'll ride home with Sam. We live in the same place anyway." 

Sam nodded. That, and he needed to talk to Colby. Hopefully Colby would be lucid enough by the time they were driving to have a reasonable conversation with.

”Cool,” Brennan nodded, glancing around the room. “I’m gonna start making my rounds. You know how long goodbyes take at these things.”

”See you in half an hour,” Colby teased, reaching over Sam to grab at his pants. Sam looked away as the blanket slipped just a little too far. 

Brennan rolled his eyes, but stepped away from them, heading to the back of the house to start.

“Seriously, you either like, dip out without telling anyone or you’re here for another half an hour to an hour past when you meant to leave because you’re saying goodbye, and then you start talking,” Colby explained, dancing awkwardly as he wiggled into his skinny jeans. “Fuckin’ kinksters suck at fast goodbyes, fuck, ow... Aja got me good...” He winced as the pants cleared his ass. 

Sam nodded, distracting himself from the blackening bruise he had seen on Colby by looking around the room. And then he caught sight of the clock. He started. It was past 2 AM! “When the fuck did it become 2 AM?” Sam demanded. 

Colby glanced at the clock, humming a quiet noise of surprise. “Huh, it is. I dunno dude, kink shit... it’s like this whole other time zone.” 

“No kidding,” Sam agreed, eyes wide. Shit... he really didn’t want to stick around while Colby did a thirty minute goodbye... now that he and Colby were mostly lucid again, it was hitting Sam just how tired and overwhelmed he was. 

He kinda just wanted to go home. 

Thankfully, Colby seemed to pick up on it. “You wanna head out?” He asked, jerking a thumb at the door. “I’ll get shit for it later but we can just go.” 

“I don’t want you to get in trouble,” Sam said faintly, still so tempted to take Colby’s offer. 

Colby grinned. “No worries, if I’m in trouble it tends to be more fun next time I see them,” He pulled his shirt over his head. “Aja gets creative with her “punishments”.” Sam could even hear the air quotes. 

“If you’re sure...”

”Yeah, dude, I’m good.” Colby nodded in the direction of the door. “Let’s go.” 

“‘Kay...” But he followed Colby nonetheless. 

Fortunately, the smokers out front were nowhere to be found, and Colby and Sam made it to the car unimpeded. Sam dropped into the drivers seat, closing his door and buckling in. Colby slid into the passenger seat next to him, cringing as he put weight on his bruised backside. “Fuck, I always forget about that,” He muttered. 

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Colby shrugged it off. “Just a reminder.” He grinned at that. 

Sam rolled his eyes, starting the car.

”So...” Colby started as he backed out onto the dirty road that had brought him here, “What did you think?” A tinge of nervousness was back in his voice.

Sam took a deep breath, releasing it as he thought. “It was... a lot?” He started. “Not bad, but...”

Colby nodded in agreement. “I get that... I kinda dove in headfirst but I know that’s not super normal.”

”Brennan mentioned that,” Sam glanced at Colby with a grin. “Something about spacing at your first rope event?” 

It was dark, but Sam was pretty sure he saw Colby’s cheeks tinge pink. “Yeah...” He admitted. “It was weird ‘cause like... at the time, I had no idea what it was. Just that I wanted to do more.” 

Sam nodded, feeling like he knew where Colby was coming from. It was confusing, in his head, but he wanted to do more of that stuff, more of the things that made Colby make those noises, that had him relaxing into a situation where Sam clearly had power over him. Because it was Colby, and he trusted Colby, and he knew Colby trusted him, but... 

“So... about that sternum thing...” Sam started, and he felt more than saw Colby stiffen. 

“Sorry about that...” Colby said quietly.

Sam cast an alarmed look at him as he pulled onto the main road. “Sorry?” Had he not really wanted to do that with Sam? Had he still been floaty and not thinking and just wanting to prolong the space...

”Yeah, I mean... you said you wanted to talk about stuff first and I kinda...” Colby shifted with a discomfort that had nothing to do with the bruises that covered his backside. “Kinda railroaded you into it.” 

Sam sighed. “God dammit, Colby.” Because it seemed like they were both worried about the same thing. “I don’t... dude, I’m confused, I am, but not like...” He stared at the road as he thought, trying to put his emotions into words. “I’ve got all these... conflicting emotions because like... I feel like I shouldn't want to hurt you?" 

"You want to hurt me?" Sam never thought that statement was something that would evoke joy from Colby, but there was no mistaking the grin on his friend's face. 

"I uh... kinda? Is that weird to say?" 

"Not in this context," Colby assured him, still grinning widely. "Dude, that's..." He looked out the window briefly, looking just generally happy. "That's really reassuring to hear." He finished. 

"Okay..." Sam said, looking at the road while he processed his thoughts some more. "Do you... do you want me to hurt you?" 

"Yes?" There was a slight lift in Colby's voice at the end of the word. "I'd like that, yeah." He confirmed, gaze even on Sam.

"Oh..." He thought for a moment again. "Okay." Well, at least it was mutual. 

Colby's grin had faded a little bit, but his face was still soft when he said, "Look, you don't have to decide now, man. You kinda got a lot thrown at you at once and like... it can... kink parties are a lot when they're new." He fidgeted with his rings. "And if you come out of this and sleep on it and tomorrow like, you want nothing to do with any of it... that's fine too." 

Sam swallowed, trying to think if that was even a possibility at this point. He was way out of his comfort zone, yes. But did he really want to go back into it? He had walked into a kink party, discovered two of his friends were kinky, discovered his best friend was a submissive masochist. He had watched someone hurt Colby, let it happen, multiple times, and held him in the aftermath, watched as Colby gave him those same reactions when he held him down and hurt him...

Except... Sam hadn’t really needed to hold him in place then. Colby could have gotten free at any time. It wasn’t really the physical restraints that held him in place. 

It had been Sam’s words. 

And then it clicked. 

"Hey Colby?" 

Colby looked over at him, and his expression was open, accepting, ready to face whatever Sam was going to ask next. "What's up?" 

"What's a Dom voice?" 

A confused looked came over Colby's face, and he even moved back a little bit in his seat. "Uh..." He looked down at his feet. "I forgot Brennan said that," He muttered through a nervous chuckle. "It's uh... it's not really like, a definition thing, but like... Brennan and I refer to it as the uh... the tone of voice that like, a Dominant would use to command their s-type, like, give orders and shit."

"Okay..." Sam said evenly, pulling to a stop as he hit the first stop light in miles. "So like, when Brennan asked if I was finding it..."

Colby chuckled nervously again, looking away and messing with his hair. "He uh... he probably heard how you were talking to me during that uh... mini-scene thing..." 

Sam didn't even process that Colby had called it a "mini-scene". He was too busy processing the other pieces that he had noticed through the night, the information Brennan had told him, the way Aja had kept looking between him and Colby, the way Colby had been acting around him all_ fucking_ night... "Colby..."

But Colby stared resolutely out the window, only the fidgeting in his hands betraying his anxiety. "Colby, look at me." And there was that hardness again, that command. And he saw the way Colby reacted, his body shrinking in to make itself smaller, even as he turned to look at Sam.

That submissive body language that naturally met with his form...

"Colby..." And the light was green, but there was no one behind him and he didn't care to move yet. "Am I your Dom?" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, these characters want this story told. Early again! 
> 
> I have so many ideas for this fic, plot and scene-wise. Once again though, my brain as decided to torture all of us with a slow burner. Welp, we’ll all enjoy it later, right? 
> 
> As always, hope you enjoyed, and I’ll see you in the next one!


	6. Chapter 6

_“Colby... am I your Dom?”_

Colby started. “No!” He answered immediately, “No, you’re... no.” And he vaguely recoiled to the other side of the car.

_Oh..._ There was something like disappointment in Sam’s stomach, a certain heaviness that demanded to know _what the fuck_ he had even been thinking, not even sure why he felt that way because he didn't even really know what that meant... “Sorry...”

”No, I mean...” Colby pressed his face into his hands. “Shit, Sam... I didn’t...” He looked out the windshield. “The light’s green,” He commented unnecessarily.

”I know,” Sam responded, but pressed the gas anyway. “So then... what are... what have...” He didn’t know how to put his confusion into words.

Colby fidgeted, wincing again as Sam drove over a pothole in the road. “We uh... shit, Sam, I didn’t...” He seemed to be struggling with his words too. “Why do you ask?” He decided on finally.

“Brennan... Brennan made some comments...” Sam answered quietly.

”Of course he did,” Colby muttered. 

He didn’t continue, and Sam let the silence sit for a moment. There was some sort of tension between them, but Sam wasn’t going to break it. He was gonna let Colby explain this one. 

Colby was silent for a long moment. Sam kept casting looks at him, but Colby seemed determined to ignore him, watching the streetlights pass. Sam drove in silence, really wishing he had plugged in his music before he started driving. What felt like an unbearable eternity of silence later, Colby finally started talking. “I uh... you being my Dom would uh...” He fidgeting with his fingers, “Not that it would be like... a bad thing but like... we would have had to have talked about it, and uh...” He finally looked at Sam, and there was some uncharacteristic vulnerability in his face. “Do you even like... know what that means?”

Sam chewed on the inside of his lip, trying hard not to over-analyze Colby's last sentence. “Not uh... not really I guess. I just know that you’ve been kinda... _submissive_ to me all night, and like...” And it was a really weird word to associate with Colby, a ball of independent energy. But it was the only way to really explain the way Colby had been acting, this new side of his best friend he’d never seen before. 

Colby winced, eyes dropping from Sam’s gaze. “Sorry...” 

“No, I mean, like, you’re not...” Sam hadn’t minded it. If he was completely honest, he had kinda liked it. It felt... natural. Kind of an extension of their already existing dynamic. Different but... good. “It wasn’t a bad thing.” He summarized finally, agreeing with Colby's earlier statement.

"Oh..." The syllable was quiet, surprised, but not altogether displeased. 

"So..." Sam started again, clarifying, "You said that like, Brennan's not your Dom, right?" 

"Right," Colby confirmed. 

"And neither is Aja?"

"Nope," Colby crossed his arms over his chest. 

"So then... what would make someone your Dom? Why are they just... your tops? Is that the word?" Sam was trying desperately to understand what the difference was. Had he just topped Colby then? 

"So..." Colby looked to be struggling with his words. "A top is really just someone who does the things in a scene. So like, Brennan does the tying, and Aja does the hitting. They both play with pieces of my uh... subby side? Like in scene, but like, as soon as the scene is over, the power exchange stops," Colby glanced at Sam, "If I were in a D/s, uh, Dom/sub relationship... that power exchange wouldn't stop outside the scene. It would be... more just how I interacted with them, uh... my Dom." 

"Okay..." Sam thought he might kinda get it. "So... they would be able to like, order you around whenever?" 

Colby shrugged, "If that was negotiated. That would be more like... a more serious dynamic. Total Power Exchange is what we call it. Or a 24/7 dynamic. Some people like that, some people like to limit it to just scene things... parties and what not." 

"Is that what you want?" 

Colby shrugged again, leaning back in the car seat. "I dunno, dude. Like I said, if I met the right person who made it work. Like... if it were something we just fell into." 

"Okay... so..." Sam swallowed, and it looked like he was getting ready to pull onto the main road, so he pulled over to the side because he didn't feel like they should be having this conversation while he was driving. Colby looked a little alarmed, but didn't say anything as Sam parked the car and turned on the front seat light. "So what am I, then?" 

Colby looked away, fidgeting again. "You're..." He sighed, looking around the floor of the car. "You're complicated." 

It gave him more information, but it still didn't answer his question. "Brennan said some stuff," Sam started, to a scoff from Colby. "About you sitting at my feet? And uh... another reason why you were afraid to tell me about this stuff?" 

Colby pressed his face into his hands, groaning quietly. "God dammit Brennan..." Sam didn't respond. He was going to let Colby explain this. "You can keep driving," Colby said from behind his hands.

Sam hummed a short negative. "I don't want to be focusing on you and LA traffic at the same time," He said. 

Colby groaned again, "Fuck, okay..." He peered out from between his fingers at Sam. "I was nervous to tell you because uh... so... I've had a hunch about you... for a while now..." Colby started. "That uh... that if I brought you out to one of these things... certain parts of our personalities would uh... match up." Sam nodded, crossing his own arms as he took in Colby's words. 

"I don't... I mean... you know me. I'm a masochist here but uh... I don't submit to people easily," Colby said, his hands dropping slowly into his lap. Sam nodded. He would agree with that. Colby was stubborn as shit and fiercely independent. That's why his next words shocked Sam. "Except... except to you, apparently."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked, a nervous fluttering starting up in his chest. 

"Uh..." Colby was having a hard time looking at him. "This uh... this power exchange thing we've kinda been doing? All night? Like... its really just an extension of our friendship, I think. Like... I want to make you happy, and do things that uh... make you happy. And uh..." He colored again, "Do that kinda subby stuff that I honestly thought was kinda stupid for a while, like uh... sitting at your feet and shit..." 

"Oh..." And Sam had to admit it wasn't a totally repulsive thought, because Colby had always been his best friend, had kinda always been _his_... He could picture the collars he had seen tonight, the physical representations of a claim on someone between the couples... A sudden thought struck Sam, and he had to clarify, "And none of this... with me... is sexual right? Because I'm not... like, I love you, dude, but like..."

Colby laughed, and it managed to surprise Sam again. "No, it's not sexual," He answered this more easily. "It's just... it would just be power exchange. And um... hopefully you hurting me," He cast hopeful eyes to Sam. "But like, you totally don't have to do any of this," Colby added in a rush, "I know it's like, a lot, and like, this is probably totally not anything you've thought of before and shit, we've known each other for years and if you don't want to do this with me then that's totally okay..."

"Colby." Sam didn't even notice when the command slipped into his voice, just that he needed Colby to calm down and stop rambling. It worked immediately, Colby shutting his mouth and turning to look at Sam. There was vulnerability in his face, and Sam wanted nothing more than to wipe it away. He was gripped by the sudden urge to reach over and grip Colby's throat, hold it not to choke him like Aja had been doing, but just to feel that power over him, that trust that Colby would have to have in him to allow it. He could even picture how Colby might relax into his grip, and the thought filled him with more happiness than he had thought it might. 

But they hadn't talked about it. And fuck if Sam was going to chance messing up their entire relationship on a whim. 

"I'm not opposed," He said instead, "To hurting you, I think. Or uh... whatever else we kinda fall into." 

Colby's eyes filled with wonder, and he blinked at Sam a few times. "Wait, really?" 

It was Sam's turn to laugh nervously, speaking even as he continued to process what he was thinking, "Yeah. I think so. I mean, you're going to have to put up with me not knowing what the fuck I'm doing for a little bit, but... oof!" And then Colby had launched across the gearshift to hug him. "Hey, dude, you're okay," Sam murmured, stroking lightly down Colby's back, aware of the bruises just under the fabric. 

"Thank you, Sam," Colby breathed, and there was a thickness in his voice that Sam would never call him on, but he knew was Colby's emotions boiling over. 

"Colby..." Sam murmured, letting Colby and himself take comfort in the tight embrace. "I'm here for you, dude. You couldn't scare me away." And Sam won't mention the quiet sob he heard against his shoulder. He just held Colby tighter and let his friend breathe.

Sam could feel the emotions running through Colby in that moment, knew his friend well enough to know the struggle that he was having, the warring emotions. He also knew that everything was intensified by the scenes Colby had done tonight, could imagine that everything was much closer to the surface. So Sam held the embrace long after he might have previously broken it, waiting to see what Colby needed. 

Colby, apparently, needed a long hug, and Sam found the fingers of one hand tracing up into Colby's scalp, scratching lightly at the skin there. He heard a soft hum of pleasure from Colby, and that little sound gave him no incentive to stop his motions. It was nice, Sam decided, to be able to touch Colby like this, be as physically close to his friend as they were emotionally. Their positions had shifted slightly, with Colby's forehead pressed into his chest, Sam's arms up around his shoulders and back, while Colby's had drawn in to some degree. 

It was nice. Peaceful. 

"So uh..." Colby started, and his voice was low in his chest, the tone Sam had heard when he was somewhere near a submissive space. "Playing with my hair, uh... especially pulling on it... great way to space me... just uh... just so you know..." 

Sam halted in his scratching and was about to apologize when Colby let out a small noise of protest. Sam paused, taking in what he was doing and considering where do go from here. "Should I stop?" He asked quietly. 

Colby shrugged halfheartedly, turning his head just enough that he could look up at Sam. "If you want to..." he said carefully. "I don't... I just thought you should know what you're doing..." 

"Oh... okay..." Sam thought for a moment, because he was trying to be good, trying not to take advantage of this new dynamic between him and Colby but _fuck_ if those reactions from Colby weren't some of the most intoxicating things... "I just... I don't want to take advantage of you..." 

Colby chuckled. "Dude, if anything I'm taking advantage of you. I've done most of this before, you're still mmm..." His voice trailed off as Sam tightened his grip on the strands of Colby's hair. Colby's eyes fell shut, lips parting as he leaned into the pull on his hair. "Mmm... fuck..." He murmured.

"This is good?" Sam asked, marveling at the way Colby reacted, leaning into the tension on his hair. 

"Mhmm..." A quiet hum of agreement was the only thing that came out of Colby's mouth. 

Sam felt it again, the coalescence of the air around them, cords of energy tightening between them. It was just the start of it, but Sam wanted to feel more. He tightened his grip again, twisting harder and Colby let out a broken gasp, hands twitching in his lap. Sam had the sudden wish that he had some rope or cuffs on him, so that he could lock Colby's hands behind him. His brain almost balked at the idea at first, but as he took a moment to process the idea instead of immediately rejecting it, it became less of a concern to him. 

So he wanted to restrain Colby, take that control away from him. It wasn't like he didn't know that Colby liked it. Colby had said it himself, that he liked when other people took control from him in a safe setting. It was how he dealt with everything else that went on in his life. Sam smirked faintly. How fitting it was that Sam should be the opposite, seizing control of the few things he could in order to handle the stress of his life. 

How fitting it was that they should be perfectly matching opposites in this regard. 

Sam torqued his wrist just a little further, twisting Colby's neck into an unnatural position by his hair. Colby didn't fight him on it though even though pain flashed across his face. His only gently lifted a hand, it coming to rest on the forearm of the hand that gripped his hair. He didn't pull back against Sam's grip, and Sam wasn't sure Colby was even away he he had moved his hands. "This okay?" Sam asked.

Colby started to nod, but let out a whimper as the motion pulled harder on his hair. "Yes..." He hissed instead, and Sam could hear the spaciness in his voice.

"Good," Sam murmured, and he almost didn't recognize the confident command in his voice, having no idea where it came from, just that it was coming out in response to Colby's body language. The energy ropes between them thickened and tightened, and Sam probably should have felt more alarmed by how fast he was sinking into this headspace, but it all felt so natural, so easy with Colby... And then he remembered the quiet realization he had had earlier; he didn't need restraints to hold Colby down. He took a breath, testing the waters by saying, "Put you hands at your sides, Wolf." 

He had tacked on Colby's pseudonym as an afterthought, but it seemed to fit better. Colby was his best friend, social media influencer. Wolf was... he was the submissive he had by the hair right now. Colby's eyes opened, looking at him with a look of careful consideration. Sam held his gaze, not letting himself chicken out now. Colby wanted Sam to take control? He could do that. "Wolf." The repeat of his pseudonym felt harder on Sam's tongue, more full of command and dominance. Colby closed his eyes for a few moments longer than a standard blink, before letting his hands fall to his sides, accepting Sam's command. 

"Good boy..." It fell from Sam's lips before he had a chance to catch it. Colby seemed to startle at the words too, eyes widening with incredulity even as Sam saw his submissive side happily take the words and sink further into space. "Is that okay?" Sam asked nervously, afraid he had pushed too far. 

The energy was humming between them, Sam could feel it in his chest. He loved it, wanted more of it, but was so afraid of messing up their existing friendship. Colby closed his eyes, pulling against Sam's grip on his hair again and hissing at the sensation before answering. "We should uh... talk about stuff more before uh... before you say things like that..." Colby said haltingly, and Sam immediately felt awful.

"Shit dude, I'm sorry..."

"No, don't uh... don't apologize," Colby murmured, "Just uh... there are significance to phrases... especially with that one for me so... Like I'm not just going to start calling you Sir..." 

Sam cringed at the idea. "Yeah, good point." 

"But the uh... the hair pulling, and uh... telling me what to do..." Colby's cheeks heated red again. "You can keep doing that. Or if you wanna hurt me... that's good too..." 

"How do you want me to hurt you?" And Sam really should stop everything, because Colby is spacey as shit, and Sam's spacey as shit, and neither of them is in any position to be making rational, consensual decisions right now, but he doesn't want to stop everything. He really, really just wants to hurt Colby, and watch his face twist in pain as Sam digs knuckles into his sternum...

And then there's a knock at the window. 

"What the fuck!" Sam yelped and dropped his grip on Colby, eyes flying to the driver's side window. He half expected there to be a cop at the window, but instead Brennan was standing there, hand on his hips and a disbelievingly amused look on his face. Fuck... fucking fantastic timing Brennan...

Sam rolled the window down, trying really hard not to glare at Brennan. 

He halfway succeeded. Brennan cocked an eyebrow at him. "You two doing okay? I saw your car on the side of the road and I thought you might have had some sort of problem..." There was a smirk on his face, "But I can see you two are doing just fine..."

Sam's cheeks were on fire. He was kinda cross with Brennan for interrupting them, half relieved he had. Because he wasn't sure how much farther he and Colby would have gone without the intervention. "Yeah... uh... we were talking and then..."

"We kinda got distracted?" Colby chipped in from the other seat, straightening out and brushing his hair down sheepishly. 

"I can see that," Brennan said wryly. He shifted his gaze to Colby. "Dude, Aja's gonna hurt you next time for leaving without saying goodbye. She said something about using that one toy she knows you hate..." 

"Fuck..." Colby swore, looking only slightly abashed. He grimaced at Sam but retorted to Brennan, "She'll have to get me tied down first. I fuckin' hate that thing..." 

Brennan grinned sadistically, "I may have offered to help."

"Oh, fuck you-" 

"Anyway," Brennan cut off his retort, "You two really should be headed home. Before I get a text message from one of you saying that you went way further than you meant to on the drive home." 

Sam rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. He wanted to fire back something sarcastic, but he knew Brennan wasn't wrong. He had been willing to do just about whatever to Colby a few moments ago. Shit, that space stuff was dangerous...

"Do I need to drive Colby home?" Brennan asked, and Sam could tell by his tone that he didn't mean anything malicious by it. He was just trying to make sure that everyone got home okay. And that Sam and Colby didn't end up scening into anything that they hadn't talked about. 

He could see the logic. But he also didn't think that letting Colby out of his sight right now would be great for his mental health. "Nah, I've got 'im," Sam insisted, before looking at Colby to make sure that his friend thought the same thing. 

Thankfully, Colby nodded. "We'll be fine. Thanks anyway, Brennan." 

Brennan gave both of them grudging looks. "Okay..." He said, "But both of you need to actually go home. Sam, I can teach you some more rope and kink shit tomorrow, if you want, but you're high as shit right now and you need to get some sleep and actually think about this." 

Sam nodded, wincing slightly. Brennan wasn't wrong. "Okay. We'll head home." 

"Good," Brennan nodded back. "I'm gonna go now. You should start driving, Sam." 

"Okay, okay, jeez," Sam rolled his eyes, but tossed a faint grin at Brennan to take the bite out of his words. "See you tomorrow?" 

"See you tomorrow," Brennan agreed, turning from the window and walking back to his car.

Sam glanced at Colby, sitting quietly next to him. Then his eyebrows shot up. Colby honest to God looked like he was pouting. "Are you pouting?"

"No," Colby grumbled, but the petulance in his tone gave him away.

"Okay, dude," Sam said placatingly, but kept the tease in his grin. Colby pouted for a few more seconds before breaking into a responding grin. 

"Shall we?" 

"Let's go." And Sam put the car into drive. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God dammit Brennan with the cock block... scene block... whatever. 
> 
> My brain is spoiling you guys with these quick updates. 
> 
> As always, let me know if this stuff is coming across organically. I've been in the scene so long I forget what is and isn't normal to non-scene folk so... hoping this is reading well. 
> 
> Also, on a slightly unrelated note, I'm curious what kinda plot lines you guys go looking for when you're looking at Fanfictions. I tend to like slower burn, developing relationship stuff with lots of angst as long as it pays off in the end (can you tell by the stuff I write?) but I'm also curious if there's like, particular scenarios you guys have been looking for. Kinda looking for one-shot ideas, I guess.
> 
> Anyway, as always, hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next one!


	7. Chapter 7

Sam and Colby made it home with very little event for the rest of the drive. Sam parked his car in the garage beneath their complex, climbing out of the car with a bone deep exhaustion that had been slowly setting in through the drive.

Colby had already almost dozed off a few times next to him. It was fine, Colby had been through a lot that night. Sam could see why Brennan didn’t let him drive home from these things. 

”Colby, hey...” A gentle shake to his shoulder was all that it took to wake Colby from his doze. He started, looking around before he registered that they were back at the apartment. He relaxed back in the seat, yawning hugely and stretching out his back. He winced a little as the bruises reregistered, but sent a satisfied smile to Sam. 

”Quick drive,” He commented.

”Tends to happen when you fall asleep,” Sam teased. Colby looked apologetic for a moment, but Sam waved him off as he climbed out of the car. “Nah dude, you needed it.” 

“Kinda an unexpectedly intense night,” Colby shrugged, dragging himself out of the front seat as well. 

“No kidding,” Sam agreed, closing the front door and locking the car after Colby did the same. He’d learned a ton tonight, and was feeling more than a little overwhelmed. Sam headed over to the elevator, Colby following quietly behind him. They made it up the elevator in exhausted silence, wandering to their neighboring apartments. 

Sam had just unlocked the door when Colby spoke, “Hey.” He pulled his key out and looked at Colby. 

“What’s up?” 

Colby was super out of it, but there was still a mild amount of worry on his face when he spoke next, “So... that was super intense, and like uh...” He chewed on the inside of his lip, “Sometimes after super intense nights, I have this endorphin crash? We call it drop, and uh... if that happens I might need you to come over.”

Sam felt worry spear through his chest. “Yeah, whatever you need, dude. Should I be worried?” 

Colby shrugged. “Not really. It’s just a trade off for the super high highs sometimes. Doesn’t always happen, I just... there’s a better chance, after tonight, because of uh... everything.” 

“Everything?” 

“All the intense scenes, you being there, having to jerk out of space that one time...” 

“Sorry...” Sam still felt bad for that, more so now that he had seen how deep Colby could go into space and how long it took him to come out organically. 

Colby shrugged again. “Not a big deal. I might just need a hug later.” 

Sam smiled faintly. “I can do that,” He eyed Colby’s body language. “You want a hug now?” 

“If that’s okay?” Colby’s body betrayed just how much he wanted a hug. 

“Colby...” Sam pulled Colby into his chest, wrapping his arms solidly around Colby’s torso. Colby’s whole body seemed to relax with the contact, his face coming to press into Sam’s shoulder. “You can always have a hug, you dumb...”

Colby chuckled a little bit against his shoulder. “Sorry, drop makes my brain do weird stuff.”

”You’re doing uh, the drop thing, now?” Sam was instantly more awake, worrying over Colby.

Colby made a non-committal noise. “A little bit. I thought I might be able to get to sleep before it hit and sleep through it, but uh... I guess not...” He even hugged Sam tighter, “Sorry... I know you’re tired...”

”I’m more worried about you,” Sam said honestly, and he was. “What do you need, Wolf?” And when Colby’s pseudonym slipped out, Sam didn’t notice it at first, until he felt the way Colby’s whole body just relaxed against him. And then he tensed again. 

“You uh... dammit Sam, I’m trying to not space right now,” Colby commented dryly, a faint laugh in his voice, “Remember when I said that words have significance?” 

“Sorry...” Sam grimaced, starting to draw back from the hug, but the instinctual tightening of Colby’s arms told him that Colby was not ready for him to let go, so he said instead, “We should probably head inside one of the apartments.” 

“Oh... okay...” 

Sam unwrapped one arm from Colby so that he could open the door, but kept the other solidly wrapped around his shoulders, in a position reminiscent of Sam pulling Colby to the couch post scene with Aja. He closed and locked the door behind them, leading Colby to his couch. Colby looked like he wanted to feel awkward about all of the physical contact, but Sam didn’t let him disengage. “Nope, sit down,” And he pulled Colby down with him instead. 

Colby seemed vaguely amused by Sam’s actions, but didn’t complain. After a brief wince as he sat, he leaned into Sam’s side again, his head falling forward. Sam could see Colby breathing slowly through his mouth, and Sam felt some of the tension leave his shoulders. He moved suddenly, reaching for the hem of his shirt and pulling it off in one motion. Colby wasn’t a big fan of shirts when he was relaxing, Sam knew that. What he forgot about was the kaleidoscope of bruises that covered Colby’s torso. 

The bruises had had time to ripen since he last saw them, and there were blotches of reds, purples, and blacks all over Colby’s back and chest. Some of them were dark red lines of blood bruises, others just shapeless masses of broken blood vessels. They were all criss crossed by the red ligature marks from the rope chest harness earlier in the night, the indentations having faded and the red lines remaining. 

Colby caught him staring. He swallowed, taking a releasing a deep breath. But he didn’t try to cover up. Sam would have seen them sooner or later, anyway... 

“Shit...” Sam breathed, honestly kinda shocked by the marks. He had watched the scene, fucking watched as Aja hurt Colby, but... the marks showed just how much she had hurt him.

“I like them,” Colby said, still meeting Sam’s gaze evenly. “I like the way they look and feel,” He forced a halfhearted grin. 

“Oh...” Sam said faintly. He felt the sudden urge to reach out and touch a bundle of blood red lines, and indulged himself, Colby letting him touch them without comment, just a faint wince.

“I know it’s... a lot...” He murmured, “But no one’s doing anything to me I don’t like.” 

Sam swallowed. He knew that. It was just hard when Colby looked so actually injured. “Okay... I believe you.”

”Okay...” Colby nodded, leaning back into Sam. “Thank you...” 

Sam sighed, hugging Colby closer to him. “It’ll be okay, dude. Everything will be okay...” Colby just settled in against him and closed his eyes. 

When Sam woke up the next morning, he could almost write off the whole night before as one crazy dream. And then he looked at his phone, and saw text messages from Colby and Brennan both, not an oddity in of themselves, but as his phone recognized his face, he saw the text appear beneath their names:

Colby: 

_How you doing, dude? 8:37am_

Why the fuck was Colby awake so early?

Brennan: 

_Just checking in! 10:52am_

And then it all came rushing back. Brennan and Colby were kinky, Colby was a masochist, Colby wanted Sam to be his freaking Dominant... 

“Holy shit...” Sam breathed, staring at his phone. 

He had sent Colby home after they had both managed to doze off on the couch. Fortunately, Colby seemed a lot better by the time he sent him off. Tired, kinda sketchy, but mentally more stable. 

Sleep had found Sam quickly, much to the surprise of his brain. He had been processing so much that the fact that his body was able to just fall asleep kinda shocked him. But nonetheless, he found himself stirring to wakefulness at eleven o’clock the next morning.

And then immediate clarity as he remembered the previous night. 

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, before pulling his phone over so he could respond the the messages. 

_I’m okay. Just waking up. How are you doing? _It was really Colby he was mostly worried about, so he sent that off first, before he pulled up Brennan’s text, staring at it with someone indecision. 

_We got home okay. I think he dropped a little bit last night? We kinda cuddled until he felt better and left. Is that normal?_ He ended up deciding on. 

Brennan responded almost instantly. _Yeah, he does that. Usually drops a few hours after he plays if he’s going to. _Another text, _You do okay with him?_

Sam’s immediate instinct was to be irritated that Brennan didn’t think he could handle Colby. He had handled Colby through so many things before... but then, this was an entirely new situation, one Sam knew very little of. He sighed, responding, _Its... kinda a lot... _

_I get that,_ Brennan responded. 

_He like... _Sam paused, trying to remember if this was something that Brennan would know, or if it would be breaking Colby’s trust to talk to him about this. Luckily, Brennan seemed to already be ahead of him. 

_We should probably talk, before we see him_ _today_, Brennan sent. _I’m just wrapping up at the gym. You down for company?_

Sam nodded without thinking. _Yeah. That would be good. _He seriously needed to pick Brennan’s brain. 

_Cool, be over in like an hour,_ Brennan texted.

_See you then!_

Sam flopped back into bed, thankful that Brennan had picked up on what he needed before Sam had had to voice it. No response yet from Colby. Sam was hopeful that he had gone back to sleep after texting Sam. 

The his screen lit up again. 

_Hey, baby :)_

Kat. 

Shit, he had a lot to tell her. 

He should have known that it was going to sound crazy. 

“And this isn’t a prank,” Katrina clarified, for at least the third time.

”It’s not a prank,” Sam repeated, rubbing his forehead with his hand. He had called her after texting had failed to work for all of the information he needed to tell her.

“Colby’s freaking submissive?”

“Yup.”

”And a masochist.”

”Yup.”

“And he wants you to be his Dom?”

“I think so?”

“I can’t... why?” Kat just seemed so confused. 

“I don’t know,” Sam was pacing in the kitchen. “Like, I can’t even explain like... It just happened. Like we just fell into it. And I didn’t think I would ever be able to hurt him but like I was able to do that too and I think I really liked it? Because he really liked it, and...”

”Sam, you’re rambling...”

”Sorry...” Sam flopped back onto his sofa. 

“It’s okay,” She said. “So... you do like it?” 

“I uh... I think so?”

”So... should I be scared?”

Sam paused. “Wait, what?”

There was fear in her voice when next she spoke. “Do you like... do you want to date Colby?”

“What?” Sam had to blink a few times before he registered what Kat was asking. “Where are you even getting that?”

“Because you like, did kinky stuff with him. Isn’t that like, sexual?” She sounded hurt, “Kinda sounds to me like you cheated on me...” 

“No, God, Kat, it was nothing like that, I promise,” Sam promised in a rush, his heart plummeting into his gut. “Colby’s asexual and trust me, I am very, very straight.” 

“So what the hell did you do?” Kat asked in frustration. 

“I uh... I cuddled with him after his friend beat him, and last night when he was dropping...”

”Dropping?”

”Uh... emotional because of an endorphin crash? And then uh... I kinda just ordered him around and hurt him?” 

Kat was silent on the other end for a moment. “That’s really freaking weird,” She said finally. 

“I know, I’m sorry. I probably should have asked you before I did anything but like... I promise I didn’t kiss him, and I still don’t want to fuck him, I just...” He winced at the idea. “I just kinda want to hurt him.” And it was scary to admit to Kat, this thing that he was still scared to admit to himself. 

But Colby and Brennan had made him feel like it was okay. Like it wasn’t the weird thing that he was trying to process and not feel like a monster for doing. 

“I just... I don’t know what to think, Sam,” She said quietly, honestly. “Because I want to believe you, I really do. But like... I just don’t understand.” 

Sam swallowed. “Trust me, I get it.” He thought for a moment, “You could talk to Brennan’s girlfriend? Ally? She knows that Colby and Brennan play. As her her thoughts on it?” 

He heard a soft little sound from the other end of the phone. It almost sounded like a sob. “Okay...” She said finally. “I will, but I’m not making any promises.” 

Sam nodded, pressing his hand into his face. “I understand. Just uh... let me know when you want to talk again?” 

“Okay. Love you, Sam.”

”Love you too, Kat,” Sam could feel his face heating up, tears pressing at his eyes. “Bye.”

”Bye.” And the line went dead. 

Sam swallowed down the tears in his throat. Fuck... he really should have reached out to Kat. Because he could see how it wasn’t sexual, how it was completely platonic, how it really was just an extension of their existing relationship. 

But Kat hadn’t been there. Kat couldn’t know what. Kat just thought he had cheated on her with Colby. 

He didn’t know what he would do if she wasn’t okay with it. He wasn’t sure he could give up that intoxicating feeling, make Colby give up the easy dynamic that they had just fallen into. But this was _Kat..._

A knock at the door let him know that Brennan had arrived. He rubbed his eyes hard, trying to push the emotions from his eyes before he went to answer it. Wouldn’t do any good for Brennan to see he had been crying. 

The look Brennan gave him when he opened the door told him that he hadn’t been very successful. “Dude, what the hell happened to you?” 

Sam sighed, stepping aside so that Brennan could enter his apartment. “I told Kat about last night.” He closed the door again as Brennan dropped what Sam recognized as his rope bag onto the counter.

Brennan instantly understood. “Oh...” He cringed, “Didn’t go well?” 

“She thinks I cheated on her,” Sam said morosely. “Did I?” 

”Depends on your definition of cheating,” Brennan shrugged. “Some people think cuddling with someone else is cheating. And you and Colby did a bit more than cuddle last night.” His eyes were regretful. 

“I didn’t... I didn’t even think about it...” Sam muttered, flopping back down onto the couch. “It just uh... just happened.”

”That’s what most people who cheat say, dude,” Brennan reminded him, but it wasn’t a malicious comment, just a quiet reminder. 

“Shit, you’re right,” Sam pressed his hands into his face. “Dude, what the fuck do I do? How did you make this work with Ally?”

“Unfortunately we started dating after I got into the scene. So it was kinda a caveat to us dating,” Brennan said apologetically, “She wanted to watch Colby and I scene one time, but after she saw that, she was okay with me doing that. I’m just not allowed to kiss him, touch him under his underwear or fuck him, which is totally fine by me.” 

Sam felt a faint smile pull at the corner of his mouth, “Not that you want to.”

”Meh,” Brennan shrugged, “I mean, I wouldn’t say no.” 

Sam blinked. “Wait what? You’re gay?” 

Brennan looked faintly offended, “No, I’m literally dating a girl, dude.” 

“Dang it, sorry... so bi?” 

Brennan spread his hands in an ‘I don’t know’ gesture. “I dunno if there’s a word for it. I’m not really hung up on labels I guess. I’m dating a girl, but banging Colby wouldn’t be off the table if he were down and I was single. Or Ally changes her mind. I dunno, I’m trying not to limit myself. Being in the scene has kinda shifted my perception of who exactly I am.”

“Huh,” Sam looked at his hands. “That’s super interesting, dude.” 

“I know I am,” Brennan smirked, back to his usually cockiness. “So uh... Colby?”

“Colby...” Sam agreed, sighing. 

Brennan plopped down on the sectional opposite to Sam. He rested his hands on his knees as he asked, “So... what’s the plan? Where are you at with him?”

”Uh...” Sam flipped so that he was sitting on the couch and facing Brennan. “I’m confused?”

”Uh huh...?” Brennan was listening.

Sam wasn't sure how much Brennan knew and how much Colby had told him. "So... you uh... you know that..." 

"Colby's the 's' to your 'D'?" He asked, cutting Sam off, "At least, he wants to be?" 

Sam paused, then nodded. "Yeah, that."

"Yup," Brennan nodded sagely, "Been telling him that for forever," He widened his eyes for comedic effect, "Dude, you have no idea how fucking frustrating its been." 

"Very?" Sam asked, laughing a little at the wideness of Brennan's eyes. 

"Very," Brennan confirmed. "See, I fucking figured that if we could just get the two of you in a kink space together, that something would happen. At least then we would know." 

Sam grinned, "He made it sound like that was his idea."

"No, it most certainly was not," Brennan rolled his eyes. "That was me. Because I knew how you two would vibe in that kinda space. And what might come out of it." His eyes were bright. "I was right, I think."

"Well, you have to stop us from scening in the car, so I'd agree with you there," Sam jabbed at Brennan. Brennan just grinned back. "So, anyway... uh, being Colby's Dom, Dominant..." Brennan nodded, a more serious look coming over his face. "What does that mean? For Colby and uh... for me?" 

"It can mean whatever you want it to mean," Brennan said cryptically. Sam glared at him, and he lifted his hands in defense. "No, really, D/s relationships are so unique and different between pairs that I can't really tell you what it'll look like for you guys." 

"But like... I don't even really know where to start?" Sam said, feeling really overwhelmed at the idea of having to come up with some elaborate thing.

Brennan shrugged. "Well, I heard you found your Dom voice." 

Sam felt heat rush to his cheeks, "Yeah..." 

"And currently, Colby seems to be obeying you when you use it," Brennan offered, "That's a thing some people negotiate."

"How is that a thing?" Sam asked, "Like, what do you talk about with that?" 

Brennan leaned back on the couch, crossing his arms. He stared into space as he thought. "Like, when you're allowed to use it, like... just in scene, at kink parties, in private... You could talk about whether he _has to_ obey you when you use it, or if he's allowed to question it or say no,... if you're allowed to tell him to do things he doesn't want to..."

"Why the fuck would I do that?" Sam demanded. 

Brennan looked at him. "Because with Colby, doing what you tell him to do will probably make him more happy than doing whatever he doesn't want to do will make him unhappy." 

Sam looked down. "Oh..." _Shit_, that was a lot of power to have over someone... "Shit, that's kinda scary." 

Brennan nodded, "Yeah, until you realize that he trusts that you won't make him do anything that he _really_ doesn't want to do, or that won't be better for him in the end. And you two have years of trust already to work off of. So I'd guess that it'll get pretty serious, pretty quick." 

"Probably," Sam agreed reluctantly. And then a thought occurred to him. "So, he's mentioned a couple of times about words and phrases having significance.

"Yeah?" 

"Calling him Wolf..." 

"I was wondering if you'd noticed," Brennan grinned again. "Yeah, he tends to associate that more with his submissive side. So if you call him that its kinda like a direct line."

"Shit..." Sam breathed. Then he asked, "Do you know what his association is with uh..." He flushed again, "'good boy'?"

Brennan's smiled dropped a little. He chuckled darkly, "Yeah, I do." 

"I remember you used it, so I thought it was okay, but... when it kinda uh... slipped out? When we were uh... playing? He kinda had a weird reaction to it so I wasn't sure..."

Brennan sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You should talk to him about that one, dude. I don't think I should say." 

"That's fine," Sam said, already making a mental list of all the things he needed to talk to Colby about. 

"So like, you do want to do this with him?" Brennan clarified, leaning forward in his seat again.

"I uh... I think so... if uh..." A sobering thought struck him, "If Kat's gonna be okay with it." Because he wasn't sure he could do this if Kat wasn't going to be okay with it.

Brennan pressed his hands together. "It'll work out," He assured Sam, "She'll get it. She seems like that kind of person."

"I hope so," Sam whispered doubtfully. 

And then his phone went off again, Colby's name popping up on the screen. _You up?_ The text read as he brought it to his face.

"Colby's awake," Sam commented to Brennan as he opened his phone to reply, _Yeah, Brennan's here. We're talking._

_Cool, I'll shower and be right over! _It was quickly followed by a, _If that's okay?_

_Always_, Sam replied back. 

He got a thumbs up emoji in response. 

"Cool, he's gonna shower and head over," Sam summarized for Brennan. 

"Cool," Brennan answered. "Then maybe we can talk more rope and kink." 

"I'm down," Sam said. Then he realized, "Shit dude, I haven't showered yet. I was on the phone with Kat and I forgot. You good to chill if I go do that?" 

"Yeah, totally," Brennan nodded, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "I'll go update my social media."

"Sounds good," Sam pushed himself off the couch and headed to the bathroom. God, he usually showered at night but he had been so fucking tired yesterday he had just crawled into bed. Now he really, really, needed a shower. 

And probably to change his sheets. 

He felt like he didn't take very long at all, but it must have been long enough. Because when he came out into the living room, Colby was there on the couch, and Brennan had Sam's phone pressed to his ear. "Yeah, he just got out," Brennan said, catching Sam's eyes and mouthing, _Kat_. Sam's stomach twisted. 

"Shit, is she okay?" 

"Yeah," Brennan nodded, following Sam with his eyes as he made his way around towards his phone. Sam felt like he knew what Brennan was going to say before the words even came out of his mouth. "You okay with her coming over and hanging out while we do rope later?" 

"Uh..." Sam took the phone and looked at Colby. There was nervousness on his face, but he nodded his consent to Sam as Sam put the phone to his ear. 

Colby was okay with it. 

"Hey babe..." He stepped away from the couches and into the kitchen. 

"Hey," She said, and her voice was still quiet. "So... I talked to Ally. She said that I really needed to see it before I made any calls, so... are you okay if I come by later and watch it?" 

"Of course," Sam said instantly, because he really didn't have a problem with her watching, he just didn't know if he'd be able to hit that space while knowing she was watching. "We'd be happy to have you." 

"I'm trying to understand, Sam, I swear," She murmured. "I wrap up with work stuff around two. I'll head over then?" 

Sam nodded, "Yeah... sounds good. I'll see you then."

"Love you."

"Love you too." And she hung up. 

Brennan and Colby were watching him. "Well, at least she's giving it a chance?" Brennan said hopefully. 

Sam nodded again. At least he had a chance to show Kat what it was exactly he was doing. 

Prove it to her that he could do this and still be faithful to her. Because fuck he didn’t know what he’d do if he had to choose...

Colby spoke next. "Dude, I'm so sorry. I never meant to come between you and Kat..." There was honest distress in his voice, and Sam immediately wanted to comfort him. He was just a little on edge. 

"It's fine..." Sam muttered tersely, stomach wriggling like it was full of worms, "Seriously dude, I should have thought about it."

"I could have mentioned it," Colby insisted, "I should have asked if you wanted to ask Kat abut any of this..."

"Colby, dude, it's fine," Sam snapped, and he hadn't even really meant to snap at Colby, but something was tight and terse in his gut and it came out before he could stop it. 

Colby recoiled instantly, stepping back and darting his eyes away. "Sorry..." 

"I..." Sam mentally smacked himself. _What the fuck had he done that for? _ "Shit, Colby, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you... I'm just..."

But Colby was already shaking his head. "It's okay, Sam. Kat's kinda... kinda a big thing." 

"You should sit back down," Brennan advised, looking between both of them with some concern, but also interest in where they would take this. 

"Okay," Sam agreed quietly, moving to sit back down on the couch with Colby. 

Colby paused for a moment, looking at the floor at Sam's feet, and Sam might have missed it if he hadn't been so focused on Colby. He wondered if Colby was debating moving to sit at his feet. He wondered why his brain so enjoyed the idea. 

When such an innocent gesture had become so symbolic for him... 

"So..." Brennan sat forward, and Sam hadn't even noticed that he had pulled his rope bag to his side from the counter. "Who wants to learn some rope?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently I’m processing something, so you guys get another new chapter!
> 
> This one was mostly plot development, which was necessary. But hopefully we’ll get back to the fun stuff next chapter! And yeah, I know, Brennan doesn’t have a girlfriend irl right now, but I didn’t realize that when I started writing so I made her up basically. She’s coming kinda in handy for plot development.
> 
> As always, hope you enjoyed, and I’ll see you in the next one!


	8. Chapter 8

Colby grunted, shifting on his knees again. Brennan tied off the last friction and looked at Colby with no small amount of pride. “There, get out of that.”

”Fuck you,” Colby grumbled, but the words were somewhat distorted by the line of rope running between his lips and over his tongue. It craned his neck backwards, anchoring it into the rope that wrapped tightly around his arms, pulled harshly together behind his back. His fingers were purple, something Brennan had assured Sam was fine, and Colby shifted again, not really able to do much as his legs were tied to be bent in half in something Brennan called “futos”... 

Sam sat back, leaning against the couch with his arms crossed over his chest. Brennan had just wanted to “practice this one thing” on Colby before Kat got there. “This one thing” had turned into an hour of Brennan and Colby tying and untying, bickering back and forth about ties. Sam added a comment from time to time, but mostly he was content to let Brennan and Colby practice, as he continued to absorb all of this stuff.

He looked at the short piece of rope tied around his ankle. Brennan had handed it to him so that he could practice the single column on his ankle while Brennan and Colby practiced. He had fucked up quite a few times, the tie having not stuck in his memory, and Brennan had to re-coach him through it, and then one thing had lead to another, and Colby was wrapped up in rope and looking quite unable to move.

It wasn’t for lack of trying however. He was fidgeting, moving against the rope as much as he was able. It wasn’t very much, but he _was_ trying.

“How’s it going, dude?” Sam asked, watching as Colby tried again to free his wrists, or get to the knots, or something, but everything was locked off out of his reach, and the line across his mouth kept him from moving around too much.

“Fuck you,” Colby muttered again, thoughts passing over his face. “Okay, lemme...” He probably meant for the movement to be slower, but he was fairly immobilized, so he more fell than laid down. “Fuck, ow...”

“You okay?” Sam leaned forward, ready to move over to Colby and untie him if he needed to.

“I’m good,” Colby said, the words more garbled after the change in position. “I just needed to get in a different position...” He was rubbing his arms against the ground, and Brennan started to watch with mild concern as some of the lines started to move. “Ha!” Colby cried in victory.

”You’re not out of it yet,” Brennan warned him, and Sam grinned at the interaction between the two of them.

Then came a knock at the door. “Sam?” And then the door was opening and Sam’s eyes flew towards the sound.

Kat stood in the doorway, and Sam knew that from that position she could easily see everything going on in the living room. Could see Sam with a rope tied around his ankle, and Colby, flopped over on the floor as he struggled to get free from the monstrosity Brennan had constructed.

“Hey Kat.”

”Hey, babe...”

”Hey,” Colby even tried to wave, but his fingers just moved sluggishly against the ropes binding them.

“Hi...” Katrina’s eyes were wide, and she didn’t look like she knew what to do. “Uh... what the hell?”

Sam stood up, making his way towards Kat as he heard Brennan murmur, “You want out, dude?”

”No way, I was just getting somewhere...”

Kat let him wrap her up in his arms and press a kiss to the top of her head, but she drew back before too soon to watch Colby continue to struggle against his predicament. “You wrapped up early,” Sam commented, knowing from glancing at his watch that it was only one-thirty.

“Yeah, filming went smoother than expected,” Kat said, but she wasn’t really paying attention to him, eyes instead on their friends. “What’s Colby doing? Did you... did you do that?”

Sam shook his head. “No way, I just started learning last night. That’s about as good as I got right now,” He pointed to the rope bracelet on his ankle. “Brennan did _that_.” He pointed at Colby.

“Oh...” Kat let him steer her over to the couch, pulling her down against him as they sat down. “Why is Colby tied up?”

”He likes it?” Sam shrugged, “I think Colby’s trying to escape this one for fun thought...”

Brennan and Colby had gone back to focusing on each other, and it looked like Colby was finally getting some leeway with the ropes. He’d managed to get the top wraps over his shoulders, which left the rest of the rope with some slack to work with.

“Oh God dammit,” Brennan commented, “Shoulda done kannukis...”

“Ha!” Colby was still giggling as the slack gave him enough room to wiggle the rest of the wraps down his arms. He got caught for a moment as the spine of the tie caught on the mouth rope, but the slack allowed him to turn his head and work it down his chin to rest around his throat. “Almost got it...”

And then Brennan was moving suddenly, grasping the loose rope and pulling it tight around Colby’s neck. Sam and Kat and Colby all gasped, but Sam relaxed just a little bit when he watched Colby’s eyes fall shut for a moment, feeling an almost palpable rise of energy. “Goddangit, Brennan...” Sam murmured, realizing exactly what was going on here.

Brennan was spacing Colby.

“What the hell...?” Kat breathed, and Sam cast a hand over her thigh to keep her seated.

“It’s okay, he’s okay...” Sam promised, feeling like he shouldn’t be the one to be explaining this to Kat, “I uh... I think he likes it...”

”You think?”

“Shhh...” Kat’s voice was probably room volume, but to Sam it felt too loud as he felt the energy spike from Brennan and Colby. Shit, he had not expected Brennan and Colby to launch into this. “They’re uh... I think they’re going to scene?” He whispered back.

Katrina looked borderline affronted at being shushed, but when she looked at Brennan and Colby, and really took a moment to watch them, as Brennan used his hold on the neck rope to push Colby’s head back, staring with him with all sorts of intensity, Sam thought she might get it, just a little bit. “You feel that right?” Sam asked.

Kat frowned for a moment, “Feel what?” 

“The uh... the energy...” Sam shook his head. “It’ll get stronger, just wait.”

Colby was looking up at Brennan, his face a little redder than usual (probably from the neck rope). He shifted his shoulders as his still bound hands forced his back into an awkward arch. His eyes darted to Sam and Kat, and while he didn’t speak, Sam could feel the concern he wanted to voice.

Sam’s immediate instinct was to blindfold Colby again, not only because he wanted to help Colby here, but also because... well shit, it had so effective in helping Colby space last time and... and Sam wanted to feel that power over him again, that feeling of Colby just accepting that Sam was taking his sight from him... Shit... was this how people got kinks?

It was with that mindset that Sam spoke next, “Don’t worry about us, Wolf,” And he knew even without hearing it that it was his Dom voice that had come out. “Just close your eyes and let Brennan tie you.”

Colby took a shuddering breath, eyes flying to Sam's. He held Sam's gaze for a moment, looking for something in his eyes. He must have found what he was looking for, because he closed his eyes, nodding his acquiescence. Much of the tension left his body as he obeyed Sam’s command and Sam could fucking _feel_ that, shit... Brennan gave him an impressed look and nodded at him, and Sam could tell that Brennan had started spacing too. He looked back at Colby, thinking a moment, and then he pulled a shorter length of rope from his rope bag and started uncoiling it.

“What did you do?” Katrina breathed in his ear. “Sam, I _felt_ that...”

“Remember what I said about the whole Dom/sub thing?” Sam asked, watching as Brennan tie a quick slip knot around Colby’s neck, pulling it until it had some tension, and then proceeding to wrap the rope around his face.

“Yeah...” Kat said softly, watching as avidly as Brennan fed the rope first around his closed eyes, and then through his teeth. Colby’s breathing had slowed, deepened, a soft noise coming from him as Brennan cinched the rope across his mouth tighter.

“That uh... that was part of it?” Sam said hesitantly. “We still need to talk about it but uh... I kinda have permission to tell him what to do sometimes?”

“Weird...” Kat murmured, leaning forward and resting her head on her hand. “And he likes it?”

“Yeah...” Sam nodded, and Brennan locked off the face rope, pausing for a moment as he considered Colby’s position. That look from the previous night came over his face, all of his attention focused entirely on Colby. Colby obediently held still, no longer struggling to get free from the rope that bound him, his body relaxed, breathing even.

Which was why the hard slap to his chest was a total surprise. Colby yelled, Kat even jumping in surprise next to him. Colby instinctively tried to pull away but Brennan had grabbed the top of the arm binder, preventing him from going very far. Sam knew about the map of bruises across Colby's chest and knew the slap had been intense. And then Brennan dug a knuckle into the muscle of Colby's chest and Colby whined, face twisting beneath the rope as he tried to process the pain. Brennan found a new pressure point and Colby let out a groan.

"He's hurting Colby..." Kat murmured next to him, a strange tone in her voice.

"I know..." Sam answered, wishing he could join in. "They both really like it."

"And you do too, right?" Kat asked.

Sam just nodded.

Brennan relented from the pressure points but reached into his rope bag to grab another length of rope. He looked at Colby in a considering way, before tying that same slipknot around the top of Colby's chest, just at his armpits. He watched Colby for a moment, before he pulled on the end, tightening the rope as far as it would go. Colby groaned again, and Brennan held the tension as he wrapped the rope around Colby's chest again, before looping back through the original line. He watched Colby again, before cinching the new band quickly. Colby made another noise, something that might have been a malformed "Fuck you," And that was when Sam figured out what was going on.

Brennan was tightening the wraps when Colby breathed out. If he continued down Colby's chest, he was going to start having problems breathing.

Sam's heart started racing again, because he still wasn't sure how he felt about cutting off Colby's breathing. Sure, he remembered Brennan saying something about how not being able to breathe made Colby floaty as shit, but... it still fucked with Sam a little bit. Because Colby was tied up. He couldn't reach out and stop Brennan if he needed to.

He would just have to trust that they knew what they were doing.

Brennan cinched another few bands, and before long Colby's breaths had grown quick and shallow, as he struggled to pull in enough oxygen through a constricted rib cage. Sam was conflicted. On one hand, Colby couldn't breathe. On the other, he could _feel_ the space radiating off of Colby and Brennan in waves, and knew that Colby was enjoying everything that was being done. And all of that was wrapped up in a neat little bow with the idea that Sam kinda liked the idea of controlling Colby's breath too.

Goddammit, but Brennan and Colby were right about him weren't they?

Brennan locked off the tie, pausing again to sit and look at Colby. He pursed his lips like he was thinking, before he glanced back at Sam and Kat. He sent a questioning thumbs up to them, not speaking, and Sam nodded, glancing at Kat to see her thoughts. There was an interesting look on her face. It mostly looked like she didn't know what to do with the situation in front of her. Or any of this really. But she still nodded at Brennan before she turned to meet Sam's eyes again.

"This? This is what you want to do with him?" She asked softly.

Sam glanced at Colby, watching the way he hurt, feeling the way he spaced from it. And he nodded. "Yeah. I want this."

"Huh," Kat murmured, and she might have been going to say more, but they were both interrupted by a cry from Colby.

Sam whipped his head around to see that Brennan had grabbed the muscle of Colby's inner thigh and squeezed it _hard_. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Colby yelped at a volume Sam didn't know he could achieve with the way his ribs were tied. Sam saw a smirk break out on Brennan’s face as he grabbed the other thigh too. The cry that left Colby’s lungs was high and reedy, and he struggled fruitlessly against the rope binding him.

Brennan watched him, lifting both hands and punching hard into the skin he had just squeezed. “Fuck!” He continued the impacts, getting consistent, jolted reactions from Colby. The energy was throbbing now, thick and heady, and Sam found himself being swept up in it. The whines and whimpers that Brennan pulled from Colby, the way his body simultaneously seemed to be leaning into and trying to escape the impacts... Just... shit, Sam wanted to do that.

Sam glanced at Kat, just to see where she was at with the whole thing. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she watched the scene in front of her with a mix of disbelief, worry, interest, and... understanding. She noticed Sam looking at her, and reached up to touch his face. She let out an amused exhale and drew him in for a gentle kiss.

Sam felt like all of the worry in the world had drained out of him at the kiss. Because he knew Kat. And she wouldn’t have kissed him if she was still upset with him. His hand slid around her waist, the other coming up to run through her hair. He felt her smile against his lips, before she gently broke the kiss. “I get it,” She murmured against his lips. “Why you want to do this with him.” She met his eyes, “You still can’t have sex with him,” She poked him in the chest playfully, and Sam broke into a grin, “But if you want to do this... I’m okay with it.” 

”I love you so much,” Sam whispered back, kissing her again, “You are amazing, and beautiful, and wonderful...” Kat giggled, pressing her forehead into his shoulder.

“I love you too. And you know...” She murmured against his ear, and from the tone she used an entirely different part of him was interested, “If you learn some of that rope stuff, you know... I might let you use it on me...”

Sam felt his cheeks flush, but still gave her a promising smile, “Oh yeah, I could get down with that...”

The sudden stop to Colby’s noises alerted Sam that something had changed. Sam turned from Kat to look and see what Brennan and Colby were doing. Brennan had rearranged Colby so that his legs were crossed in front of him, and was pulling him down by the line around his neck like he was trying to get Colby’s knees and shoulders to meet. His eyes were intent on Colby.

For a moment, Sam didn’t realize what was going on. And then Brennan pulled Colby back upright and Colby sucked in as big a breath as possible given the binding around his chest. He was spaced as shit, Sam could see it on his face, and he understood it then. Brennan was cutting Colby’s breathing off further by keeping him from redirecting his breathing into his stomach. And then Brennan pushed him back down and Colby went back to his desperate little sips of air.

It freaked Sam out a little, but the space was pulsing deep and strong from the two of them and Sam knew Kat was just as wrapped up in it now as him, one of her hands on his thigh and the other wrapped up in his hands. Aja hadn’t been wrong when she said that Brennan and Colby got intense when they played.

This was... this was intense.

Brennan started undoing the wraps around Colby’s legs as he kept choking for breath. He undid the wraps, but gripped Colby’s ankle before he could unbend them. “Stay,” He said firmly, and Sam almost missed the word but he saw Colby nod in response.

Agreeing to remain in a position that limited his breathing to tiny little gasps. 

Brennan pulled Colby up for a moment while he started undoing the rope binding Colby’s arms behind him. It was already mostly destroyed from Colby’s struggles earlier and Brennan’s manipulation, and Brennan just had to undo a few knots before the whole thing just kinda fell off of him. Brennan pushed Colby’s arms to his side from behind him. Sam heard a small noise of relief and pain at the movement, but Colby didn’t move other than that. “Good boy,” Brennan murmured, and Sam heard a pleased hum come from Colby’s chest.

There was that phrase again. So why could Brennan use it?

Brennan pushed Colby back down into his knees, moving slowly around to start undoing the rope wrapped around Colby’s face. Strangely though, he only ended up undoing the portion around Colby’s mouth and nose, locking it off and leaving the part covering Colby’s eyes. Fuck, now that the rope distorting Colby’s features was gone Sam could see even better how far gone Colby was, his mouth hanging slack and color painting high into his cheekbones. Rope marks ran across his cheeks and jaw, red and indented. Sam even saw a red line that might still linger after the impressions had faded.

Brennan pulled Colby upright again, kneeling slightly behind him, letting him catch his breath for a moment. He reached over Colby’s shoulder to start undoing the rope around Colby’s torso.

Colby started relaxing as the first few bands were untied, air moving more easily into his oxygen deprived lungs. Brennan had almost unwrapped all of the bands, down only to the slip knot that had started it all. And then his hand was tight on the lines by the knot, pulling Colby hard back against him as his other hand came up to completely cover Colby’s mouth and nose, cutting off his air entirely.

Colby’s whole body tensed and he cried out against Brennan’s hand. But he didn’t move the rest of his body, and shit, Sam loved how he just accepted that he wasn’t going to be able to breathe right now.

Brennan only held it for a few moments, before releasing his hand and letting Colby breathe. He repeated this process a few times, holding for longer each time and breaking for less time. During the final choke, when Brennan had to have been holding his breathing for a good fifteen seconds, Sam watched Colby shake his head slightly into the hold and Brennan let him go. Colby gasped in air, and Brennan leaned him forward, finally unwrapping the rope around Colby’s eyes until all that remained was the slip knot around Colby’s neck.

Brennan held the end of the short rope leading from Colby’s neck for a moment, considering it. He glanced up at Sam, then at the ends, and Sam definitely didn’t miss the leash symbolism in the tie, wanting almost to reach for the ends himself. But then Brennan was untying the rest of the rope and pulling Colby tightly against him.

For a few moments, there was silence and stillness in the room as everyone realized it was _over... _Kat finally moved next to him, leaning back into the couch and pulling her knees up to her chest, watching Colby and Brennan with a kind of awed silence. “What...” She murmured, almost silently.

Sam just nodded, hoping his face did the sentiment of _I know right?_ correctly. He leaned back, throwing an arm over Kat’s shoulders and pulling her close to him.

Brennan looked up at the two of them, holding up a questioning thumbs up surreptitiously against Colby’s chest. Sam nodded, looking at Kat, who also nodded. She too seemed to feel the need for silence in the aftermath of _that_...

The four of them sat in mostly motionless silence for a few moments, as Sam felt the intense energy of the scene slowly dissipate into a calmer aftercare. Colby didn’t even move at first, and Brennan had to pull his arms into his chest. It felt like forever before Colby finally moved his head and opened his eyes.

The first set of eyes he sought out were Sam’s. He smiled faintly at Sam, finally shifting off of Brennan and running his hands slowly over his face. He looked at Kat next, and Sam saw worry move slowly onto his face.

Luckily, Kat spoke up before Sam even started to. “I’m okay, Colby,” Kat said softly. "I'm okay with it. I promise."

Colby looked down for a moment, before looking back at her, smiling and nodding his thanks.

"Words a little hard?" Brennan asked quietly, his voice gravelly and low in his throat. Colby nodded again, shrugging and grinning sheepishly. "Yeah, I know, breathplay does that to you," Brennan chuckled and Colby rolled his eyes.

Sam finally felt like he could take up space again. The energy had dissolved enough that he felt comfortable leaning forward and getting closer to Brennan and Colby. Sam sent Brennan a searching look, not knowing exactly what he was talking about with his statement. Brennan shrugged. "Uh... sometimes when we play really hard uh... or I'm an asshole and I pull breathplay on him," Colby rolled his eyes again at Sam with a long-suffering look, "He goes a little nonverbal? Like, he can talk if he needs to but would rather not?"

"That's... interesting..." Kat said, a perplexed look sitting across her features.

Brennan chuckled, "I know, but it's something some people do. Especially when they space super hard. Which dude, I was totally not expecting that," He turned to Colby.

Colby grinned back at him, shrugging. He gestured at his chest and flashed a thumbs up, indicating he had no problem with it. Then he nodded his head at Sam. "Yeah, I know," Brennan nodded. "I think we can both blame Sam." Colby nodded instantly.

"Wait, what?" Sam demanded, "I had no part in this."

"Bullshit," Colby muttered, "You fuckin' Dom voiced me."

Sam paused. remembering. "Oh yeah..."

Brennan nodded his agreement, gesticulating with his hands. "That was it! Because you went all D-type on him and he fuckin' spaced out and I mean dude, you've felt it when he spaces and shit that stuff'll get you. Oh yeah," He looked at Colby. "He's the reason you got face rope. So you can thank him for that rope mark on your cheek later."

Colby touched his cheek, the wrong one, actually, and scowled at Brennan. "Dammit dude, I can't film with this."

"I'm sure it'll heal by Thursday. Not like you ever actually film your videos ahead." Colby shot him the bird, but his expression told Brennan that he had a point.

"So like..." Kat interjected, interest on her face now that she had gotten over the initial shock of the whole kink thing. "How did you guys get into this?" And Sam smiled quietly to himself, because he knew that Kat was going to be okay with this. He looked at Colby, watching Brennan with his arms wrapped around his knees.

Yeah... he was into this. He just needed to talk to Colby about what exactly _this_ entailed.

Brennan grinned widely. "So... it all started at this drag show I was at..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you guys like updates, right? 
> 
> So this scene was fun to write. And we got some plot out and taken care of. Now I get to get onto the next fun chapter, which is Colby and Sam negotiating... so excited!
> 
> As always, hope you enjoyed, lemme know what you think, and I’ll see you in the next one!


	9. Chapter 9

Brennan and Kat stuck around for a little bit longer after the scene, chatting about kinks and the origins of Colby and Brennan's kinky relationship. Kat had even admitted that she might want to join them out at one of the parties one of these day, something that got her a wide, relieved grin from Sam. 

She really was okay with it. 

Before too long though, Brennan was climbing to his feet. "Alright, well that was awesome, but Sam and Colby have a conversation they need to have today." He looked pointedly at Colby.

Colby grinned nervously, turning his eyes to Sam. "Yeah, we do." Sam nodded, even as his heart rate picked up in his chest.

Katrina smiled softly at him, kissing him sweetly before also climbing off the couch. "Date night tomorrow?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'll text you," Sam grinned at her. God, he loved her...

"Cool." She kissed him again, before standing and moving towards the door with Brennan. "Love you."

"Love you too!"

"Call me if you need anything," Brennan warned them, shouldering his rope bag. “Colby, you know what we talked about."

"Yeah, yeah," Colby waved him off. "I'll fill you in later, dude."

"Okay, deuces!" Brennan called, as he slipped out the door. Kat sent one last sweet smile at Sam, before she also exited the apartment.

And he and Colby were left alone.

Alone together again.

Sam glanced at Colby, who was also suddenly looking nervous. "So... talking?" Sam asked.

Colby nodded, taking and releasing a breath. "Yeah," He nodded.

Sam looked down at his hands, folded in his lap. "I still... I still want this?" He said unevenly, "I just... I don't really know what this is. Or uh... really where to start?" 

Colby moved his head in consensus. "Okay..." He glanced at the ground at Sam's feet, eyeing it with some trepidation. "Can I..."

"Can you still negotiate?" Sam asked, because he liked the idea, but he needed to know that Colby wouldn't get so spacey he wouldn't be able to negotiate properly.

Colby thought for a moment, but nodded. “Yeah,” He agreed. “As long as you don’t go trying to Dom voice me again.” His voice was teasing.

Sam felt his cheeks heat up. “Sorry...”

Colby waved him off, “Meh, no worries.” Colby moved forward and settled at his feet. “You’re okay with this?” He asked, “Me doing this? Because, you know, you don’t have to be. We can negotiate this too.”

Sam thought about it for a moment, really thought about it. He tried to think of a reason that he wouldn’t be okay with it, but he couldn’t. “No,” He said finally. “I think I like this.”

Colby smiled happily. “Cool,” He said. “Because I really like this too.” And he rested his head against Sam’s knee. Sam felt a rush of affection, reaching out to scratch lightly at Colby’s scalp. He got a hum of satisfaction from that one, but didn’t let himself do it for too long, wary of spacing Colby again. 

Colby too seemed to remember the conversation that they were supposed to be having. “So… what else have you liked, that we’ve been doing?” He asked, meeting Sam’s eyes. 

“Uh…” Sam paused, trying to put the last day (God, had it really only been a day?) in order in his head. “Shit, that’s a lot.”

“I know,” Colby said gently. “No rush.” 

“I uh… I really like it when you do what I tell you?” Sam’s face was on fire and it’s so stupid, because he knew that Colby knew that, it was pretty obvious really. “And Brennan mentioned that we should probably negotiate that a little bit more?”

Colby nodded his agreement. “That’s a good place to start,” And his face was just a little flushed too. And that made Sam feel immediately better. “So… I like it when you Dom voice me too. Obviously…” He grinned sheepishly at Sam. 

“Brennan said something about negotiating when I’m allowed to pull that on you? Or uh… if you have to do it?”

“I trust you,” Colby shrugged offhandedly. “I’m not terribly worried that you’ll take advantage of it. Except, you know, in a way that I’ll really like.” 

“Yeah, but like…” Sam wasn’t sure how to express just how overwhelmed he felt by that permission, that the rules and constrictions were more for his benefit than for Colby’s. 

Fortunately, Colby seemed to recognize his struggle. “Maybe we keep it to around kink people? And Kat?” He offered, “And places where if I space out a little it’s not a problem?”

Sam nodded, thankful that Colby had kinda foreseen that idea. “And uh… tell me if you don’t want to do something that I tell you to do?”

Colby hesitated here. “Even if it just makes me happy to do what you tell me?”

Sam chewed on the inside of his lip. Because the short answer was yes. Because he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea that Colby might not tell him. “Uh… maybe for now? At least? Until I get more used to the idea?”

Colby shrugged grudgingly, “Yeah… that’s okay. I can work with that. I’ll try to tell you.” 

“And no not telling me because you think it’ll make me happier,” Sam pointed an accusing finger at Colby, and a guilty smile passed across his friend’s face. “Because you’d do that.”

“I would,” Colby agreed guiltily. “Alright, communicate, gotcha.” 

“Thank you,” Sam said, and he can’t express the relief that passed through him at that statement. “We may be trying this Dom/sub thing but like… you’re still my best friend and I can’t… I can’t take advantage of you like that.”

“What if I like being taken advantage of?” Colby asked cheekily, and Sam glared at him. He groaned, but nuzzled at Sam’s knee, “I’ll let you know. Promise.” 

“Thank you,” Sam said again. “Uh… so uh… play-wise? I guess that’s next?” The scene from earlier was still fresh in his mind, so he asked the first question that occurred to him, “So you like it when you can’t breathe?”

Colby pursed his lips as he thought. “Uh… kinda?” At Sam’s confused look, he continued, “So, it’s a twofold thing. I uh… I get really floaty off of not being able to breathe but uh… it’s also that I like it when someone has control over something as like, simple as my breathing? Like, it’s a thing that I don’t even really think about minute by minute so like… when someone else is in control of it… I love it.” His eyes were sparkling as he spoke, and Sam thought he might get it. 

“And that’s something you’d be okay with me doing to you?” Sam asked.

Colby nodded instantly. “Oh hell yeah,” He answered. “Once you like, learn how to do it of course. You can’t just like, grab my throat and squeeze.” Sam felt what almost seemed like a pulse of submissive energy from Colby at that statement, and was seized with the urge to do just that. He stretched his arms over his head, trying to dispel the urge. 

The way Colby grinned at him told him that he figured out what had happened. “I’m okay with that too,” He offered. “It’s uh… like instant space but like… if you wanna grab my throat uh… I’m into that.” 

Sam glared at Colby. “I’m trying not to space on you right now, you asshole,” He grumbled. 

Colby didn’t look apologetic at all. “I mean, I’m okay with that.”

“God dammit Colby, I’m trying to negotiate,” And when his voice dropped into his Dominant register he immediately saw the effect it had on Colby, and the way Colby immediately tried to shake it off. “Sorry…”

“It’s fine,” Colby shrugged, drawing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. “You’re still learning to control that around me. I just uh… happen to be really sensitive to it?” 

And that jogged Sam’s memory. “Oh yeah… I meant to ask you about that.” And Colby looked at him with some alarm and maybe some worry as well.

“What’s up?”

“So… words and phrases have meanings?” Sam asked, getting a nod from Colby. “So… can I ask about the whole uh… ‘good boy’ thing?”

The way the energy darkened between them told Sam a little bit about the information he was about to be receiving. “It’s uh…” Colby started shakily, and Sam moved a hand to grip into Colby’s shoulder, just behind his neck. He laughed nervously. “So uh… It’s a little heavy.”

“I’m getting that,” Sam said, “Dude, if you don’t want to tell me then that’s totally fine…”

“No,” Colby shook his head, “I uh… I want you to know. Because I trust you but like…” He paused for a moment. “So uh… you’ve already figured out that like… I seem to be pretty easy to space right? Like, the right touch or tone of voice?” Sam nodded. “So uh.. I used to be worse, believe it or not,” He chuckled, but the tone was dark. 

“When I first got in, I kinda uh… went a little bit crazy? We call it frenzy, which is when you’re new to the scene and everything is like… really awesome and exciting. Because like… I wanted to try everything. And uh… that lead to some uh… not great choices in play partners?”

Sam swallowed, nodding for Colby to continue. He didn’t like the way this was going. 

“So… I figured out pretty quickly that uh… ‘good boy’? Is like instant space for me. When someone I see in a dominant role says it. And when I first got started… I was a little less choosy in who that was? And like, Brennan tried to advise me on who to play with but he hadn’t been around that much longer than I had and so he didn’t always know who was and wasn’t bad news…” Colby paused for a moment, seeming to be determining how to continue. 

“So I was playing with this girl named Britt. At least, that’s what she was going by. I’d already started using Wolf at that point so uh… that association was there too,” Colby ran a hand through his hair. “We’d played a few times at that point, she was really good with knives.” 

Sam tried really hard not to react at that statement, but the way Colby reacted told him that he must not be good at controlling his face. “Not like, for cutting, I promise. No one’s allowed to cut me right now.” He considered for a moment, then looked up at Sam, “You know, I’d let you cut me.” 

“Colby!” And Sam knew his voice sounded borderline horrified.

Colby winced, “Sorry,” He apologized.

Sam shook his head, trying to force that mental image from his head. 

“Anyway,” Colby continued, “So uh… she had me chained down to this table right? I like being tied down you know that,” Sam nodded. “And uh…” He looked down at his knees, seeming to be struggling for words now. 

“Colby…” Sam wanted to hug Colby. He looked like he needed it. “Can I… get up here and hug me.” And it didn’t slip into his Dominant register, but Colby obeyed him like it had, climbing up onto the couch and pressing himself into Sam. Sam wrapped arms around him, angry that someone had made Colby feel like this, even though he didn’t know what he knew would be the worst of it. 

Sam let Colby pull back, but he kept an arm wrapped around his friend. “So… I uh… I knew Britt wanted me. She’d made it pretty obvious, and she’s someone who blends kink and sex so… you know, in retrospect it wasn’t a great idea for me to play with her.” He laughed humorlessly and Sam got an awful, awful feeling in his gut. 

“Colby, did she…” Because oh shit, this was starting to sound really, really bad. 

Thankfully, Colby seemed to catch where Sam’s terrified thoughts had raced off to. “No,” He said, shaking his head firmly. “She didn’t… Aja was DMing and stepped in before she could do anything but threaten me with uh… well, try to space me into being sexual with her.” 

“Space you into it? But didn’t… you’re ace?”

Colby shrugged. “She took asexual and turned it into ‘try harder’. Luckily, Aja and I had just started playing and she knew how I felt about mixing sex and kink. So she stopped it before Britt could even really do anything.” He grinned faintly, “She wasn’t officially banned but uh… Aja made it very clear that she wasn’t welcome back and I hadn’t seen her since.” 

“Colby, I… I’m so sorry,” Sam murmured, pulling Colby tighter into him. 

Colby shrugged again, “I mean, I leaned a lesson. Just kinda a sucky way to learn it. But it really could have been a lot worse so… I’m glad for that.” 

Sam sensed Colby didn’t really want to say anything else on the matter so he didn’t fight Colby on continuing to talk about it. Until he remembered how the story had been started. “So uh… what does that have to do with using ‘good boy’?” Sam asked. 

Colby winced, but still answered, “Because I have a very strong reaction to it. So it was one of the phrases that she was using to try to space me into it.” And before Sam could panic, because he was very much ready to, Colby added, “Which isn’t to say that you can’t use it. I trust _you_. I just uh…” He frowned, thinking, “Just kinda wanted you to be aware of the phrases you’re using and uh… how powerful they can be for me.” He huffed a laugh, “I space really hard, and Brennan tells me it’s like a fuckin’ drug for my tops but… there’s a flip side to that too. Once I’m spaced… I’m not always great at pulling myself out of bad situations.” 

Sam just hugged Colby tighter again, “Shit dude…” Because he couldn’t think of anything else to say. 

Colby tried to smile at him, but it still came across as forced. “Why do you think Brennan and Aja are so damn protective of me?”

Sam nailed him with a hard look, “Well, now you’re going to have me. And I’m not going to let anyone touch you without your permission.” And he felt the energy shift, registered which voice he had used, felt Colby’s body simultaneously tighten and relax against him, his breathing catch and then even out. 

Sam felt the urge to reach for Colby’s throat again, and knew that this time he had permission. So he reached out, wrapping light fingers around his best friend’s throat and bringing Colby’s eyes up to meet his. 

Colby sucked in a surprised breath, but didn’t fight his grip, seeming almost to lean more into it. Sam turned his body, propping himself up on one knee, letting himself feel and enjoy the trust that Colby had in him at this moment. He moved his other hand to fist into Colby’s hair, watching the breath that Colby took and released, the flutter of his eyelids, eyes falling closed for a few seconds before he looked at Sam again. 

“You’re mine,” Sam breathed, and it didn’t matter that out of context that was a really fucking weird thing to say, because Colby just nodded against his grip, agreeing with the possessive command in his voice. 

“Always have been,” He answered instead. 

Sam held Colby’s gaze for just a little bit longer, before he finally let go, trying hard not to get swept up in the slowly pulsing waves of space from Colby. “So… negotiating?” He tried. 

Colby blinked, and shook himself shortly. “You Dom voiced me again,” He muttered, “Not my fault.”

“Negotiating,” Sam repeated, and he intentionally kept the command out of his voice. “Come on, dude.”

Colby rolled his eyes. “Alright, alright…” He grumbled, pulling back from Sam to settle at his feet again.

And Sam tried really hard to focus on this conversation. Because he’d be able to play with Colby later. They needed to talk now. “So…” He started, “What sort of stuff are you okay with me doing to you?”

As it turned out, there wasn’t much Colby wasn’t okay with Sam doing. “Not a huge fan of foot worship, and uh… sexual stuff is out, but uh…” He aimed a teasing look at Sam, “I don’t think that’s gonna be much of a problem?”

Sam shook his head definitively. “Nope. Love you dude, but uh… not like that.” 

And just when things had started moving in the direction of potentially scening again, they both got a text message from Jake. He was bored, and they both agreed it was probably a good idea to take a break from the kink stuff and just get back to life for a little bit. 

And then they were at Target with Reggie and Jake having cart races and Sam almost managed to forget about his crazy fucking weekend.

Forgot, that was, until Colby asked him to come over Wednesday morning to work on a video and chat about something. 

Colby was jittering all over his kitchen when Sam made it over. It was a nervous excitement, definitely both nervous and excited, and Sam was a little concerned about what he might be about to hear. “What’s goin’ on, dude?”

“Okay, so… don’t freak out,” Colby started, which was, of course, the best way to make Sam want to freak out.

“Colby, what the fuck…”

“Don’t freak out,” Colby said again, hands out in a halting gesture. “So, uh… I got a text message this morning,” He started, “One of Aja’s friends is in town for the weekend and I‘ve been meaning to play with her for uh, for a while…”

“Okay…” Sam crossed his arms over his chest. This wasn’t bad yet.

“So uh… I’m planning on going over there Friday night…” Colby continued narrating, “and I was wondering if you would be willing to come with me and uh… kinda keep an eye on me?”

“Keep an eye on you?” Sam asked, slightly concerned now as to where this was going. “You planning on spacing hard?”

Colby nodded, grinning slightly. “Yeah. I haven’t done this before so like… it should be intense.”

“Haven’t done what?” Sam asked, looking at Colby cautiously.

“Uh…” Colby colored, and he mumbled something Sam couldn’t make out.

“Colby…” Sam threatened, but he didn’t drop into his Dominant register, just his best-friend-is-fucking-with-me register. It was still weird that he could tap into that other headspace, that Colby would respond if he did. He was still hesitant to use it, still feeling out their dynamic very slowly.

Colby shifted on his feet while he met Sam’s gaze sheepishly. “Sutures…”

“Sutures? Like… needle and thread?” Sam was confused. Wasn’t that for stitches and stuff?

“Yeah…”

“But you’re not hurt right? What is she gonna suture?” Sam started to get a weird feeling in his gut.

Colby shifted again, glancing absentmindedly at his phone, but not really seeing it, doing it more as a nervous gestures. “Uh… my mouth, probably?”

Sam blinked a few times as he processed the statement. “Your mouth.” He repeated.

There was still a nervous grin on Colby’s face. “Yup.”

“Like uh… shrunken head style?”

“Uh… yeah,” Colby chuckled.

“Oh…” Sam forced down the borderline revulsion that he wanted to feel at the idea of someone suturing Colby’s mouth shut. Sure, maybe it had been threatened when Colby was being super obnoxious, but never in his life did Sam think that Colby would actually want someone to do that to him. “Why?”

“Because it’ll be super intense,” Colby answered, “And uh… I wanna try it.”

“Uh…” Sam didn’t have words. He was just struggling to hide the gut reaction of horror he was feeling.

Colby cringed. Clearly Sam had not been hiding his face well. “I know it’s a little intense…”

“Just a little,” Sam muttered.

“But uh… I really want to do it, and like… I’d really like you to be there with me,” Colby said, “Because uh… I’m gonna space out, like, really hard and uh…” He looked away. “I’d really like you to be there…”

Sam swallowed. “Uh…”

“You uh… you ground me,” Colby said, and there was a quiet vulnerability in his voice. “And I’m probably gonna get super subby… so… I’d rather my D-type be there…”

And God, if that wasn’t still a really weird thought. That he could call Colby his in that regard. And as he stood there he realized that he really didn’t want anyone doing anything of that magnitude to Colby if he wasn’t there so… He sighed. There wasn’t really much of a choice. “Okay,” He said.

“Okay?” Colby asked.

“Okay, I’ll go with you,” Sam said. “If someone’s gonna be stitching your mouth shut then I should be there to enjoy the silence, right?” He broke into a teasing grin at the end.

Colby rolled his eyes. “Fuck you, you know you love my voice.”

“Most of the time,” Sam fired back, glad to fall into the easy banter.

Colby grumbled good-naturedly at him. “You gonna be okay?” He asked, dropping back into a more serious tone.

Sam shrugged. “I’ll make it work,” He said.

“Sam…”

“Dude, look,” Sam stepped up to Colby, tapping a little bit into that Dominant energy he was becoming more familiar with. He hadn’t really used it since they had negotiated, but it came back far more naturally than he had thought it might. Colby’s eyes dropped, and his mouth closed. When he looked back up at Sam, it was with expectancy in his eyes.

He would be quiet, but Sam had better explain himself.

“The idea is… I’ll admit, kinda freaking me out,” Sam said, “But uh… I really don’t want you to go alone. So like… at least if I’m there I can…”

“No one’s gonna hurt me in any way I don’t like,” Colby reminded him patiently, but there was quiet smile on his lips. “If I don’t like the suturing, it stops. It’s not all or nothing.”

“I know, I know…” Sam said, “It’s just…” He searched for words for a moment.

“You get protective,” Colby finished, and his face told Sam that he found the fact endearing.

Sam nodded haltingly. “Yeah…”

Colby stepped towards him, pulling Sam into his arms. Sam hugged him back, not missing the desperate way that his arms wrapped around Colby’s torso. Colby wanted it, Colby wanted it… “I’ll be okay,” Colby promised quietly.

“I know…” Sam responded. “I will too. Fuck, for all I know I’ll be really into it.”

Colby drew back, nailing him with a quirked eyebrow. “That would be interesting.”

“Oh yeah…” Sam carded a hand absentmindedly though Colby’s hair, watching his eyelids relax and feeling Colby relax into him just a little. “You planning on keeping it in for a while? If you like it?” It was fine, Colby would be fine, Colby liked this stuff…

Colby shrugged, “Yeah, why not? It’s basically a harder to remove gag, right?” Sam winced a little bit and Colby added, “I wouldn’t even necessarily need to play while its in. I could just uh…” He flushed a little bit, “Kneel at your feet and space for a bit…”

“You can do that?”

Colby nodded . “Yeah… it’s kinda meditative.”

Sam nodded, processing. “I’d be down for that.” Way more than he thought he would actually.

Colby grinned at him. “Cool, cool,” He glanced at the counter, where Sam could see his camera sitting innocuously. “So, video time?”

“Video time,” Sam agreed, happy to change the subject for now. He’d deal with watching Colby get his mouth sutured later. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah... warning for needles and medical play next chapter? 
> 
> Note on this chapter: I’m sure y’all know this but consent while spaced is not consent. I exaggerate it a little bit with Colby’s space because it’s fun (and I do know some people this sensitive to spacing) but I’ve heard too many horror stories of people who negotiated mid scene and ended up doing things they never would have consented to sober. So do your negotiations before you scene, and stick to it. If you have an idea mid scene, make a mental note and talk about it later. This has been a friendly PSA. 
> 
> So, some bad news. I’m about to hit a wall with Transitions. I’ve got the next chapter planned out and that might be the end of the plot bunny. I may add more later as more occurs to me but in the mean time, I have some other projects I’d like to hop onto. I’ll keep y’all updated.
> 
> As always, hope y’all enjoyed. Lemme know what you thought and I’ll see you in the next one!


	10. Chapter 10

“You gonna be okay with this?” Colby asked quietly.

They were parked together outside Aja’s house. Sam had driven, of course. Neither of them wanted Colby driving home after what they both knew would be an intense night. Sam’s arms were crossed over his chest, staring at the door. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.” He tried to smile at Colby. 

Colby didn’t look like he believed him. “We can still leave,” Colby said softly, but the look on his face told Sam very clearly that he _really_ didn’t want to have to do that. 

But Sam shook his head. “No, no you can’t. You’ve been planning and negotiating this for months, right?” Colby nodded. “So I’m not going to mess that up. I really...” He hesitated for a moment, “I think I’ll be okay, once I see you space. That tends to happen.” 

Colby looked at him carefully, before nodding. “Okay...” He said, looking at the dashboard as he worked his lips, looking like he was trying to think of words. Sam wasn’t disappointed. “So uh... I told Brennen this but uh... So I’m not going to be able to talk, while they’re in, obviously...” He gestured with his hand, “And uh... I’m gonna be spaced as fuck so...” He crossed his arms. “This is me, while I’m still sober, kinda giving you blanket permission for anything you wanna do tonight.”

Sam felt his eyes widen. “I’m sorry, what?” 

Colby’s cheeks were red, and there was a nervous smile on his lips as he continued. “I mean, obviously we’ve discussed hard limits and shit but like... the stuff that I’m okay with you doing, and you know what that is... you can do any of that, while I’m spaced later. I’m okay with it.” 

“I uh...” Yeah, that was a little overwhelming. Because while he knew that Colby trusted him unconditionally from the years of their friendship it was still a little weird to know that all that unconditional trust extended to kink as well. “Okay. But you’ll still stop me if you really don’t want to do something?”

Colby furrowed his eyebrows. Sam knew this was still a point of contention between them, because Colby was more than okay with him doing anything, even if Colby didn’t exactly like it just because he was following orders, and Sam wanted to know what those things were so he could stop. Sam know it had to do with the power exchange thing for Colby, but it was something that Sam still wasn’t totally comfortable with. 

“I’ll do my best to stop anything I _really_ don’t like,” Colby answered honestly, which Sam appreciated, even if he didn’t like the caveats that left open. 

“Okay...” Sam swallowed, nodding. “I can work with that.” He looked at the door again. “You ready?” 

And that nervous but excited grin was back on Colby’s face. “Oh yeah,” He answered. “Let’s do it.” And they climbed out of the car together to go meet Brennan, Aja, and Kelly, Aja’s doctor friend. 

When they got inside, everything kinda passed in a blur. There were introductions, and some small talk, but it seemed like no time at all before Colby and Kelly were talking about their scene, and getting set up for it. Sam definitely felt a little alarmed when he realized that it was time. 

“No allergies to nylon or rubbing alcohol?” Kelly asked, spreading out her tools on the tray.

“Nope,” Colby confirmed, finally looking nervous now that the time had actually come. The doctor inspected her tools one more time before turning her attention back to Colby. He was laid out on a portable massage table, shirt off, cracking his knuckles and casting eyes at the tray. Sam had watched the set up. Everything had been laid out just so. Sam was sure she did this all the time, both at work and for play.

He didn’t doubt her ability to suture Colby’s mouth shut. He just wasn’t sure on his own ability to watch it. There was a tension in the air. Sam could feel it in his chest. He stood close to Colby, but not too close, not wanting to be too close in their scene space. Brennen and Aja stood next to him, both of them looking excited to see this.

Sam swallowed his own anxiety down, trying not to let Colby see it. Now Colby was nervous, so it was his job to make Colby feel better.

Kelly was continuing with her questions. “You’ve had something to eat and drink in the last hour?”

“Yup,” Colby confirmed that too. Brennen and Sam had made sure of that.

“Okay,” Kelly nodded. “You ready to get started then?”

Colby glanced at Sam. Sam smiled at him, trying to mask his own trepidation. “Sam, can you hold my wrists?” Colby asked, surprising Sam. When Sam examined him a little closer though, he could see the anxiety Colby was trying to force down. He clearly still wanted to do it, he was just nervous. And looking to Sam for support. Sam swallowed again, but he nodded at Colby. He would support him. Colby turned to Kelly. “If that’s okay?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, if you want to. But I need to stand behind your head. So as long as he stays out of my field I’m okay.”

“Sterile field,” Aja explained quietly. Aja also worked in healthcare as Sam had found out. Colby’s theory was that she was a nurse, although he had never confirmed it.

“Okay,” Sam said, stepping forward to the side of the table as he took a deep breath. Colby met his eyes, quietly offering his wrists to Sam. Sam took them, noting the warmth of Colby’s arms, the faint trembling of his arms. He crossed Colby’s wrists, pressing them into Colby’s abdomen, sitting down on a stool that Brennen pushed close to the table. Just from the small amount of contact, Colby seemed to have relaxed a little bit. “That’s it…” Sam breathed, feeling his own energy shift in response to Colby’s. Colby seemed to notice it too, and he could almost feel the spaciness bleeding back at him.

“Okay…” Kelly pulled out a handful of alcohol swabs, running it over Colby’s mouth, chin, and lips. Colby crinkled his nose as the wipe passed his nostrils, and Kelly grinned a small, sadistic smile. “I know, it’s strong…” Colby nodded, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath through his mouth.

Kelly reached away from Colby and over to her tools. She picked up on of the tools, one that almost looked like pliers, and pulled the needle out of its casing. A long black string followed it. She reached for a pair of fancy looking tweezers with her other hand, lifting the long end of the string so that she was holding them over Colby’s face. “You ready to get started?” She asked.

Colby opened his eyes, taking in the needle poised over him. He nodded, and Sam briefly felt him flex his wrists against Sam’s hold. Sam squeeze them back, and Colby closed his eyes again as the needle descended. “Don’t move,” Kelly warned him, as she pulled the middle of his bottom lip with the forceps.

Colby made a muffled whimper as the needle pierced through his bottom lip. She didn’t go very deep, catching just enough skin to not tear when she pulled on it, and Colby sucked in a heavy breath through his nose as she pulled some of the nylon cord through, pulling until there was only about an inch or two left on the other side. “Okay?” She asked.

Colby’s face was twisted as he tried to process the sensation, but he hummed a quiet affirmative, flashing a thumbs up.

“Keep going?”

Another affirmative.

Sam was glad he was okay. He wasn’t sure what he would have done if Colby had called red.

“This one will be more sensitive,” Kelly warned, before reaching for Colby’s upper lip. Another muffled noise later, Kelly was pulling the cord through until it cinched down on Colby’s lips, stitching them together. All she needed to do was tie it off.

“Okay?” Kelly asked again.

Colby flashed a thumbs up again, and Sam squeezed his wrists reassuringly. He could feel how fast Colby was falling into space and it was fucking intoxicating. Even if it was because someone was sewing Colby’s mouth shut.

Kelly nodded, and managed to tie the entire thing with the plier looking thing and forceps. Sam heard a quiet noise of interest from Brennen behind him, but he was a little too focused on Colby, and the energy rolling off of him in waves.

Kelly paused after snipping the ends and dabbing at the bit of blood that had arisen from the puncture wounds. She held the needle and examined Colby’s face. “More?”

Colby opened his eyes, and they were glassy, rolling slightly as he glanced first at Sam. Sam didn’t know what look was on his face, but as Colby took a look at him he knew it had to be somewhere near his Dom space, because Colby seemed to even further relax into his grip, head lolling back to look at Kelly. He worked his lips, and Sam imagined he was testing the suture.

He could tell from the further drop in Colby’s lucidity that he really liked it. Colby nodded, closing his eyes and relaxing back as Kelly reached over his mouth again.

This suture went in quicker, off to Sam’s right of the original suture. Kelly pierced through the bottom lip and very quickly moved to the upper one. Sam actually had to tense his grip on Colby’s wrists because Colby almost pulled against him, letting out a distressed noise through his nose. 

“You got this, Wolf, you got this,” Sam coached quietly, still feeling some vague concerns at the suturing but so much getting swept up in energy that Colby and Kelly were throwing off that he found the whole idea easier to ignore because shit, Colby was spaced…

She threw in an overhand knot, pulling the second suture tight. Colby groaned, his eyes still squeezed shut, taking deep breaths through his nose as Kelly threw in two more knots to lock off that suture. She gripped his bottom lip on the other side of the center suture, meeting his eyes as she commented, “Gotta have symmetry right?”

Colby hummed a spacey affirmative.

Sam could tell Kelly wasn’t being nice when she put in the next suture by the noise that Colby let out. He tensed under Sam’s arms, eyes opening to find Sam’s. Kelly was full on grinning now, pulling Colby’s upper lip up so that she could slowly work the needle through the flesh. Sam could tell she was taking it slow and moving it more than necessary to cause more pain. Colby whimpered, panting through his nose as he trembled with the effort to hold still. “You got this, Wolf…” Sam murmured, tightening his grip on Colby’s wrists. “You can do it.” After a high pitched noise when the suture was drawn together, Colby relaxed again, breathing through his nose into the pain. Sam held his wrists, feeling that submissive energy twist between them.

Colby was bottoming for Kelly, but he was subbing for Sam…

Kelly put in two more sutures, giving Colby five sutures total. They went in much the same as their predecessors, with Kelly manipulating the needle and nylon to cause Colby pain. God, the noise Colby made when she sawed the last suture back and forth before tying it off… Sam was glad he was almost helping to hold Colby down at this point, because Sam was worried that Colby would have jolted and ripped the suture out of his lip.

After Kelly had knotted off the last suture and cut the needle from it, she grinned down at Colby for a moment. “How you doing, Wolf?” She asked gently.

Colby blinked a few times, seeming to be having trouble processing the thoughts. But he finally looked up at her, flashing a thumbs up. “Good,” She grinned. “Sam, you got his wrists?”

Sam startled, a little surprised that he was being brought into this. “Uh… yeah? Why?”

“Watch this,” Kelly commented, reaching down and squeezing Colby’s nose shut.

Colby started, an initial burst of panic making him jolt as his air supply was suddenly cut off. He made a broken, questioning sound that was cut off by the lack of air that was in his lungs. Sam froze, hands still around Colby’s wrists that were suddenly tense. He watched Colby’s mouth work, struggling to get it open around the sutures and from the look of it it was very painful…

Kelly released her grip and Colby sucked in air desperately, making a quiet noise of pain as he looked wide eyes up at her. Blood hard started oozing from the sutures again and Kelly grabbed another square of gauze to dab it up with.

Sam was torn between yelling at Kelly and keeping quiet, because what the fuck, had that even been discussed between them…?

Thankfully, Kelly answered his question. “What did you think of that?” She asked Colby, “Still okay?” Colby took in a few more breaths, processing, before nodding. He looked down at Sam, tapping his hand with his and flashing an ‘OK’ sign at him.

Colby was okay. “Right,” Sam murmured, “You like it when other people control your breathing…”

Colby nodded, grinning as much as he was able and giving him a thumbs up. The grin looked to be a painful mistake though as he winced and let the expression fall. Sam almost chuckled at the immediate regret he had seen, which he took as a good sign.

If he could laugh in this scenario, it would be okay.

Kelly flashed Sam a mischievous look, and it was all the warning he got before Colby was tightening under him again as Kelly cut off his air. Despite the tensing, Colby never really tried to get free. His limbs may have contracted up, but the force that Sam was feeling against his hand on his friend’s wrists was nowhere near enough to actually break free. He could have kicked them off, thrashed his head and gotten away… but he was still allowing himself to stay there and be at Kelly’s mercy.

Sam watched Colby try to relax against the choke, but his plan was thwarted when the forceps started tracing along Colby’s abdomen. He jumped in surprise, and Kelly lifted her hand from his nose at the same time, letting him pull in a surprise gasp.

“He is fun to play with,” Kelly commented to Aja, and Sam cast a look around the room, having practically forgotten they were there in his preoccupation with Colby.

“Very sensitive,” Aja agreed, strolling up to the table. Colby cast wide eyes to both of them, as they approached, waiting to see what they would do. “And he can’t say a word this time…”

Colby’s eyes darted between the two, before they flew back to Sam. He tensed his arms again, and Sam instinctively tightened his grip on them. “What do you think?” Aja asked Colby, “Up for a little co-topping?”

Colby thought for a moment, glancing between the two of them. Then he shook his head, an apologetic look coming over his face. “Not a problem,” Kelly said, “Maybe next time when we haven’t just sutured your mouth.” Colby nodded thankfully. “Speaking of which, you like it?”

Colby nodded again. He shifted on the table, gently but firmly breaking Sam’s hold on him so that he could push himself upright on the table. Kelly stepped quickly towards him, a hand resting on his shoulder. “Nice and slow,” She said, “That was a lot, don’t want you passing out.”

Colby grumbled something sarcastic, Sam could tell by his face, but nothing recognizable made its way out of his mouth. He swung his legs over the side of the table, pausing for a moment to process the change in position. Little bits of blood had started to seep from the sutures again, and Kelly moved over to clean it.

Colby reached for Sam when he stood and Sam automatically caught him, going to stand up but Colby shook his head. At Sam’s confusion, Colby knelt on the floor, looking back up at Sam as soon as he was settled on his knees.

_I could just uh… Kneel at your feet and space for a bit…_

Oh… that was what was going on.

“Hey there, Wolf,” Sam murmured. Because he was sure that was who he was talking to. The submissive.

Colby hummed a hello, resting his hands on his knees and closing his eyes. The black sutures were shocking against his mouth, but the look on his face was peaceful. Colby was spaced, Sam could feel it, but it was a lighter sort of space, not as deep as where he had been. This one was more sustainable.

Sam scooted the stool closer to Colby’s kneeling form, so that his leg tucked against Colby’s shoulder. He reached over and ran his hands through Colby’s hair. He got an almost instant happy noise for that one, a low hum as Colby leaned more into him. He smiled softly, looking up to see everyone else in the room watching them.

“What?” He asked, flushing.

Aja answered first, “It’s good to see Wolf happy. And that he’s found someone to trust with this side of him.”

Brennan nodded in agreement. “Took him long enough,” His reply was more sarcastic, but then, what had Sam really been expecting? He just let Colby float, and tried to join in him that easy, happy space.

”Hey Kelly?” Brennen asked, “Would you show me how to suture? That tying with the tools... that’s really cool.” 

Kelly nodded in agreement. She turned to Aja. “Got an orange or some fruit we could practice on?” 

“Yeah,” Aja looked at Sam, “You gonna be okay, here, with him?” 

Sam glanced down at Colby, clearly spaced as shit, leaning into his knee. “Yeah, I got this,” He agreed, running a hand through Colby’s hair. Brennen flashed them a thumbs up, and the other three headed into the kitchen. 

Colby hummed a little bit, and Sam looked down at him. He gestured to couch with a questioning look. “You wanna go sit on the couch?” Sam asked. Colby shook his head, then pointed at Sam. “Oh, do _I_ want to go sit on the couch?” Colby nodded. Sam thought for a moment. “Yeah, that would be good.” The stool wasn’t all that comfortable. “You gonna be good to get up and walk?” Colby rolled his eyes a little, but nodded. “Cool.” 

Sam stood, extending a hand to Colby to pull him up as well. Colby followed behind Sam as he moved to the plush leather couch, sinking back to the ground at Sam’s feet when Sam sat. “Oh yeah, good move,” Sam commented, groaning at the softness of the furniture. Colby let out a happy little hum, pressing his forehead against Sam’s knee in a nuzzling motion. Sam fed his fingers into Colby’s hair again and distracted himself with the little noises of pleasure that he could pull out.

_God_, it was weird, this submissive side of his friend. But he couldn’t say he didn’t like it. 

He tightened his grip in Colby’s hair, pulling a soft noise from the submissive kneeling at his face. He smiled softly, pulling on Colby’s hair harder, turning Colby’s head against his knee so he could see the spaced out look on his friend’s face. The stitches were a little jarring, but Colby was just so spaced out that Sam couldn’t find it in him to be too phased by it.

Colby’s mouth was sutured. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t tell Sam no... he _wouldn’t_ tell him no. 

And Sam loved it. Just... _fuck_, that power was intoxicating. 

“Wolf,” Sam spoke, and he knew that when he spoke it came out in his Dominant register, “Are you okay if I play with you?” And he knew it was redundant because Colby had given him blanket permission earlier in the night, but he still felt like it was the right thing to do to ask. 

Colby lifted his head to meet Sam’s eyes. His eyes were a little glazed over, and he blinked slowly at Sam as he nodded. “Mmhmm...”

Sam wrapped a light hand around Colby’s throat, feeling as his friend melted into him. ”You’re okay if I hurt you?” 

Colby gave another hum of agreement, eyes falling closed in pleasure. 

“Fuck, okay...” And Sam should have asked Brennen to show him how to blood choke Colby, because that was what he really wanted to do right then... but then his eyes feel to Colby’s mouth, stitched shut with nylon cord, and remembered that there was a very different type of choking that he could do. 

And it kinda freaked him out, that he wanted to do it... but Colby had given him blanket permission. And Kelly had already done it, so he knew Colby was okay with it. It just... shit, it was kinda intense to think about. 

“Wolf, look at me,” Sam murmured and Colby opened his eyes to look at him. Sam moved his hand slowly, resting it over Colby’s nose. Colby's eyes closed for a few moments longer than an average blink and Sam felt a pulse of space from Colby. “This is okay?” He asked even though he could tell from Colby’s reaction that it was more than okay. 

Colby just nodded. 

And Sam pinched Colby's nose shut. 

Colby didn't really react at first, still staring up at Sam with trusting eyes. Then he shuddered a little bit, his eyes falling closed, and _oh shit_ Sam felt that, that pulse of energy and space as he leaned into Sam's grip around his throat. The way Colby just let Sam take his ability to breathe...

Sam released his grip after about three seconds, having freaked himself out enough by how much he liked it. Colby pulled in a quick breath, but then opened his eyes to look at Sam again. Sam could see the concern on Colby's face. He was worried about Sam again. And Sam... didn't want that. Sam was fine. Just a little freaked out about how fine he was. 

"Close your eyes, Wolf," He murmured quietly, tightening his grip slightly on Colby's throat. Colby only hesitated for the barest of seconds before closing his eyes, but it was long enough for Sam to read the expression on his face. 

He didn't want to. 

"Colby?" He dropped out of his Dominant register for this, genuinely asking his best friend what was wrong, dropping his grip on Colby's throat. "Dude, open your eyes. What up?" 

Colby's eyes opened slowly, meeting Sam's. It took a few seconds for him to blink the space from his eyes and Sam immediately felt bad for making him pull out. But he wanted to know what had made Colby hesitate. Colby made a quiet noise and looked away like he was thinking. Then he pulled his phone out of his pocket. Sam was confused for a second, before he saw Colby pulling up his text screen. He typed something out, and Sam looked down to read it;

_I want to see your face_

_Oh... _Sam chewed on the inside of his lip. "But I'm not like, great at hiding my expression and I don't want that to pull you out of space."

Colby pressed his lips together, wincing at the movement, but then typed, _But I know you like this. Even if you get worried sometimes. I want to see that. I want to see you like this and that I'm not..._ he paused in his typing, a worried expression falling over his face. 

"You're not forcing me to do this, you know that," Sam murmured, feeling his heart beat just a little bit harder at that admission. "I uh... I like this." 

_Then I want to see it,_ Colby replied, pushing out a small breath through his nose, _Let me watch you. Please?_

"Colby..." Sam breathed, running a hand through his hair. This was Colby. He trusted Colby. And Colby had communicated like he'd asked him earlier. "Okay, dude. Okay. But uh..." He felt his cheeks heat, "Just don't get too freaked out if my face does weird things, okay?"

Colby snorted at that, typing quickly, _You mean more so than normal?_

Sam rolled his eyes, "I swear to God, Colby," pressing his hand to Colby's throat again. Colby jumped in surprise, falling backwards and dropping his phone and Sam ended up following him to the ground, kneeling over him and pressing his neck to the carpet. Colby's hands came up instinctively, gripping Sam's wrist as he stared up at him. 

It all kind of fell into place there. "Hands above your head, Wolf," Sam ordered, and he didn't know where the confidence or the command came from, just that Colby reacted almost instantly, releasing his grip on Sam and putting his hands above his head. He met Sam's eyes evenly, and Sam spoke without really thinking, "Good boy..."

Colby only gave him a moment to panic before Colby's eyes fell shut for a few seconds and he shuddered in Sam's grip. He hummed out a small noise, and Sam felt the space just snap back into being, like a guitar string being plucked, the low hum permeating the air and lingering there. 

_Fuck, _Colby wasn't joking when he said that phrase affected him. And it was clear to Sam now that Colby was okay with him using it. And shit, was Sam okay with that.

Sam kept one hand pressed to Colby's throat, but the other wandered down to his chest. The patchwork quilt of bruises had faded a little bit over the week, but they were clearly still sensitive. Best of all, they gave Sam a map of places that he knew would still be sensitive tonight. He pressed against a bruise on the center of Colby's right pec. Colby groaned lightly, his eyes moving up to watch Sam. Sam could feel it, the trust that Colby had in him, and how much he wanted Sam to keep going, keep hurting him, to hold him down and choke him...

And for the first time, Sam didn't let his brain talk him out of the wave of pleasure that ripped through him. He just tightened his grip on Colby's throat and pressed his knuckles into Colby's sternum. Colby sucked in a breath through his nose, juddering under him as the breath was released in a low groan, one that rose in intensity as Sam pressed his knuckles harder into his sternum, feeling the way Colby's whole body reacted to the pain, tensing and flinching under him but never dropping his gaze from Sam's. He moved his fist up and down Colby's chest, letting Colby have brief moments where he relented the pressure before digging back in. 

There was some sort of high pitched noise coming from Colby, his fingers working above his head where Sam had told him to hold them. He arched his back slightly, his eyes squeezing shut as he struggled to process the sensation as Sam took the heel of his hand and just pressed down into his sternum... Colby took a desperate breath, and Sam had been watching his breathing for so long that he recognized the slight increase in struggle with one. Was he...

He pressed harder with his hand, pressing harder into Colby's chest, watching as Colby's eyes met him, his breaths shorter and more labored... "Do you like that?" Sam asked, and he barely recognized the husky growl that came out of his mouth. But he sure recognized the impact it had on Colby, as his friend shuddered under him again, a moan crashing out of his lungs. He was controlling Colby's breathing again, but this time he was doing it by preventing Colby's lungs from expanding. And shit if that power wasn't intoxicating. 

"That's a good boy," Sam murmured again, and Colby's eyes were spaced but pleased when they met his. "I like this," He continued, "I really like this." Colby nodded slowly, his eyes closing again as he struggled to pull another breath in. 

A thought occurred to Sam then, remembering the scene he had watched last weekend, and he lifted his hand from Colby's sternum just to slap down hard across Colby's chest. Colby yelped as much as he was able to through his nose, but his eyes didn't open, his head just falling back, further exposing his throat to Sam. Sam hit him again, and again, lifting his other hand so that it could join and falling into a rhythm natural to him from his music background, finding is only slightly ironic that was the skill set he tapped into to hurt the guy he considered his best friend.

His _submissive_... 

But then, it wasn't really hurting him, right? Not if he liked it? 

He gripped into the muscles of Colby's chest, pulling on them and Colby let out some sort of high pitched noise as the grip dug into the already sore muscles. He was whimpering, the stitches across his mouth keeping him from letting out any words to express the pain he was feeling. But the space was still pulsing from him, hard and strong, and Sam knew that there was no way he wanted Sam to stop. And in that mindset Sam could almost picture the continuous whimpers as pleas to continue. To not stop.

To keep doing this thing that drove him further and further into space. 

That Colby knew he wanted. 

And when he pinched Colby's nose shut again, and watched him strain to take the pain Sam was delivering to his chest without the ability to breathe through it... Sam couldn't imagine why he would ever not want to do this to Colby. 

Ever not want to feel this again. 

Colby let Sam choke him and hurt him for a while. It was something powerful, to hold control of Colby's breath in his hands. It was intense, and Sam could only say that he loved it, loved that Colby never fought against him, only held himself down and took it. Sam started with short bursts of cutting off air, but he soon learned how to stack them on top of a particularly painful stimulus, digging into Colby's sternum just as he cut his breathing off again, letting him breath again just long enough to suck in a gasp or two before taking it from him again. 

And Colby never shook his head to safeword, despite the fact that Sam reminded him he could, even when Sam held his nose closed for over twenty seconds, just to see if Colby would stop him. He watched Colby's eyes start to roll back before he let go, letting Colby gasp himself back to full awareness. Shit. It was a lot of power.

And Sam loved it.

Sam wasn't sure they would have stopped except that Sam became aware suddenly that they had an audience. He had counted roughly ten seconds on this current choke when he looked up and noticed Aja, Kelly, and Brennen all watching them from the entrance to the kitchen. Brennen waved him off when he saw that Sam had noticed him, but Sam took it as a sign that maybe it was time to wrap things up with Colby. He released his grip on Colby's nose, smiling as Colby gasped in air, finding Sam's eyes with his own. 

_Fuck..._

"That's my good boy..." And it would have been weird, so weird, to say that to Colby just a few short days ago, but now it just felt right. After one last hard rub to Colby's sternum Sam pulled Colby up and against him, moving so that they both leaned against the couch. He and Colby were both breathing hard, and Colby nuzzled into Sam's chest, humming his contentment. Brennen smiled at Sam, and it was a proud smile. Because Sam had done something he hadn't know he could do, hadn't known he would want to do. 

Be this. Be more to Colby than his best friend and business partner. 

Be his Dominant as well. 

Sam scratched lightly at Colby's chest with his nails, staring at the redness and welts left behind from their scene. And they didn't freak him out. In fact, he kinda hoped they stuck around. 

When Sam and Colby had had a few moments to come down from the scene, Kelly knelt down next to them. "Are you ready for the sutures to come out?" She asked quietly.

Colby looked up at Sam, blinking at him absently, and Sam knew that he was asking for Sam's opinion. Sam hugged him a little tighter for a moment. "You want them out? I can go either way." 

Colby groaned, pressing his face into Sam's chest. But Sam still felt him shake his head. Sam smiled wryly. "Looks like we're keeping them in for now." 

Kelly nodded her acknowledgement. "Okay. Just let me know when you want them out."

Colby nodded again, taking and releasing a breath and relaxing further against Sam. And as Sam carded a hand through his hair, hearing a quiet noise of pleasure, he knew he'd never felt something as right as this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> General BDSM note about this one: I took some liberties with Sam knowing how to top just a little bit, because it usually takes a few weeks to a few months before tops know how to control the ebb and flow of a scene (and some never get it). But uh... Colby spaces hard and they know each other super well so... I'm gonna go with this. 
> 
> Unfortunately, I think this is all the juice I had for this particular plot bunny. I may come back to this at a later date, adding in little scenes later on, but I think I'll do those as separate works, so you can consider this one complete for now. 
> 
> Thank you for all the support through this dive into the BDSM world, and I hope to see you all in my next piece, Unexpected, my first foray into the Brolby world. First chapter is already up. 
> 
> I'll see you in the next one!  
Nova


End file.
